By Amy NoraIt is the never-ending cycle of what many of those with Lupus and other Chronic health conditions struggle with. The financial struggles that people with SLE face can be a challenge on many levels. According to the Lupus Foundation of America, the average lupus patient spends approximately $12,000 annually on treatments; however, many treatments cost several thousand dollars a month or every few months. There is also the problem of loss of income due to the inability to work full time or the need to go on disability. The average total annual breakdown cost per Lupus patient in the United States is $20K.
This is an extraordinary amount of money to the average person or family. There are ways to help soften the financial impact though. First, drug manufacturers offer assistance programs for patients that are not on Medicare, Medicaid, or Tricare. If you are on any of those three programs, it is illegal for them to assist. These programs offer help with the medications that have copay’s of several hundred to several thousand dollar copays. Second, are organizations that have grants or funding available to assist with various costs associated with various conditions or drugs that are not associated with drug manufacturers so they do not fall into the prohibitive statues under the law. The most heard of and known one is the Healthwell Foundation to those in the Lupus community. Third, if you can meet with a financial advisor to work on medical expense planning. This is now just as important as retirement planning for those with chronic medical conditions. This is not Health Savings Accounts, this is not a specific type of account, this is a strategy based off expenses and potential length of ability to work.
There are honest and hard financial discussions that must be had if you have a medium to severe case of SLE. I would encourage you to plan wisely. When those expenses come that none of us can plan for, let us make sure we use what resources we can to lessen the impact as much as possible.
We already have to deal with pills, let’s do what we can about those bills…
**********
http://www.resources.lupus.org/entry/facts-and-statistics
