“Why does Gleevec, a leukemia drug that costs $70,000 per year in the United States, cost just $2,500 in India?” THE ANSWER MAY SURPRISE YOU! (Actually it probably won’t. Patents, is the reason, and This Atlantic article on drug companies and patents and the Indian government explains how drugs are priced and how some people are trying to change that and have been trying to change that for a long time.)
1. High school. I’ve been getting my period for four years but it’s never been normal, and I’m worried. This despite the fact that irregular periods in high school are actually more normal than regular periods in high school. I must be the outlier. There must be a reason. That reason must be cancer. Bloodwork. Ultrasound. Inconclusive. Everything looks normal, if it lasts a few more years, get another checkup. Oh I will. Cost: No idea. I didn’t think about things like “money” back then, only HEALTH. (Paid by parents.)
2. College. Abdominal pain. Am I stressed? Uh, it’s college? Time of my life? Totally not stressed, except about fact that this dull ache is probably cancer. Student health refers me to gastro specialist, who orders a colonoscopy. Results inconclusive. Pain eventually goes away. Cost: ??? plus my mom took off work and drove to my university town and booked a hotel room for my colonoscopy because she is a wonderful mother and then afterwards she bought me so much stuff from Whole Foods, it all must have been additional hundreds on top of that why are my parents so great I don’t know. (Paid by parents.)
Think Progress reports: “Under Obamacare, employers are required to offer health insurance options for any employee working 30 hours or more per week. So [Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell] and his team have slipped language into the state’s budget bill requiring that any hourly waged workers employed by the state put in no more than 29 hours a week.”
Hourly workers employed by the state include adjuncts. Ohio’s Youngstown State University implemented sub 29-hour policies in November. Everyone is so sneaky I love it. (I don’t love it.)
