What 21 Year Old Can Afford This?

At 21 years old, I never expected to have to create a GoFundMe to help pay for the medical prescriptions that came with a cancer diagnosis. Unfortunately, this is something that is all too common - and frankly, the status quo here in the USA. Diagnosed with cancer? Well, better start crowd sourcing for funds because the cost of cancer care is high and unachievable leaving people, young and old, in crippling debt and, too often, not able to receive treatment.

A cancer diagnosis comes with many surprises. The chemo to cure the cancer, causes side effects that require you to get other medicines for the nausea, blood clots, lung toxicity, muscle pain and so on. This was my reality in 2015 when I was going through treatment for Lymphoma. At 21 years old, with no financial income, student loans and now drowning in medical bills - I sometimes wondered how I was going to come out of this experience being able to pay my bills, eat and... alive.

Making my way to the pharmacy after one of many hospital stays, thrilled to be out of the hospital and ready to go home and organize my new medicine and get into a new routine, I meet the pharmacist to pick up my new prescription. When the pharmacists told me the cost of this little, tiny bottle (that was to last me one month) my jaw dropped, and I had to walk away empty handed and call my doctor and ask if there was another option. Early in my diagnosis, I opened a credit card for emergencies expecting already to not be able to afford my treatments. This credit card has left me riddled with debt 6 years out of treatment. I'm still paying off that card and its interest mostly due to the out-of-pocket costs I accrued through my prescription drugs.

I'm not alone in any of this. Far too many cancer patients face out-of-pocket costs so high that they abandon their cancer treatment because they can’t afford it. And the number of Part D enrollees experiencing high cost-sharing has skyrocketed over the past few years. Cancer patients are already facing some of the hardest challenges imaginable. It's past time for Congress to break down the financial barriers that stand between patients and their treatment.

I urge you to establish an annual out-of-pocket spending cap for Medicare Part D patients that also smooths upfront patient costs into manageable monthly payments throughout the year.

With hope for a better world for affordable healthcare,

Racheli Peltier

Hodgkins Lymphoma Survivor