Tamra Varebrook:
The accusation, "You just want to get out of paying your deductible," and my answer to that is kind of what we talked about just a little while ago, as far as the specific drug is not the only cost of chronic disease. Chronic disease causes people to miss work, end up in emergency rooms, hospital bills — I mean, that medication is never the only cost that comes in with anybody with a chronic disease. And there's adaptive equipment, there's all kinds of things that insurance doesn't pay. Or, even if you've met your deductible, you're doing an 80-20, 80%/20% cost share — 20% can be a lot of money, you know, a real lot of money. Nobody's trying to get out of paying anything. Quite honestly, why does the insurance company care who's paying it? Why do they care if it's me or if it is the pharmaceutical company that has money put aside to assist people who need it? They're still getting their money. They're getting the amount of money they say that they need, which is your deductible, your out-of-pocket maximum. They're getting it. Why do they care where it's coming from and why do they think they're deserving to get double? It will not be counted towards anything for me unless it's coming out of my bank account. So, I mean, I guess you'd better not tell 'em when you borrow money from friends and family to be able to pay for your drugs, because they probably wouldn't count that either. You know, they want it coming from the pocket of the patient.