Everyone with MS soon learns about those wonderful drugs the ABC’s of interferons at one point or another. The drugs I have been on at various times have been Avonex , Betaseron , and Copaxone. I have tolerated them well . I have moved a lot and have changed neurologists a great deal.. Most neurologists have a pet interferon treatment. I think it is related to which drug manufacturer gives them the best incentive gifts for prescribing them , but hey I am a skeptic.  Some people do not tolerate the interferon drugs at all well.  In my case our wonderful health care system no longer will pay for them for me.

When I started in the late nineties on Betaseron it was about 1200 dollars a month but Indiana Medicaid paid for it.  I had Medicare part D but the co pays were beyond my budget. I have a Humana supplement. I have learned that Humana is not going to pay for any drugs that seem to cost more than fifty dollars. I have insurance so those medication charity programs do not help. The self injected M.S drugs are always over a thousand dollars a month and the insurance companies will avoid paying for them. I have noticed that neurologists now ask if you can afford these drugs many times before they prescribe them  It is just another sad fact of our health care system ,but it leaves me in a quandary. Yes, I did ask the doctor a simple minded question.  Is there an oral drug that does not cost over $12,000 a year to treat M.S.? There is not . I am off on the internet trying to find alternative treatments I can afford. It is hard even with a long time diagnosed disease these days to even get to see a neurologist.

The insurance companies make it very difficult. I have had major neurological declines since being off the preventative interferon drugs . I cannot even get the neurological testing I need to determine the extent of the decline because we, well they want a $ 500 dollar co pay at the specialist my neurologist referred me to. I have Medicare, Humana Supplement, and Indiana Medicaid and still cannot get appropriate medical care.  I am not sure what this whole situation says about doctors, greedy insurers, or even government programs. Government health insurance will not work if specialty providers will not accept their payments. Still health reform that made the pricing of services within the realm of reality would probably help everyone.

So I sit looking online a massive doses of Vitamin D as a good preventative. It is cheap and supposedly safe.  I cannot ask my neurologist about it because the Vitamin D manufacturers are not financing a seminar he can attend in Cancun I guess I will have to figure it out on my own.