Just when you think all the bad stuff has happened, I found out today that my Dad's insurance company sent him a letter saying that they are no longer covering oxycontin on their drug plan! Are you kidding me?! My Dad opted for a "Medicare Advantage" plan about 6 years ago and, even though Dad could not go to MD Anderson with this insurance and now can't go to UTSW since they no longer take his insurance, he managed to get care at other places (inferior places it seems)and the insurance paid for pretty much all his care, crappy as it may have been.
Now they are no longer going to cover the only drug that even touches his pain and on top of that, are making him pay for 20% of the cost of his upcoming radiation!! He could switch back to plain Medicare, but with his health issues, could not get a supplement plan (in spite of what Mr. Obama says about not being denied due to pre-existing conditions!) and would have to pay the 20% PLUS deductibles for hospital and doctor visits PLUS drugs. And the hospital deductible is for EACH VISIT if they are more than 60 days apart.
He is supposed to start radiation to shrink the mass tomorrow, but he has apparently developed a UTI, maybe because the mass has started to block the ureter and back things up into the kidney. He needs radiation to relieve the blockage which is causing the infection but can't get it until the infection is gone which is not likely to happen until the blockage is resolved! Figure that one out. I fear he will have to have a nephrostomy tube (which he absolutely hates!) to relieve the blockage and clear any infection. I feel like this is one step forward and two steps back without the one step forward.