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RE: [dTube] Horrible: Teacher Who Died From Flu Delayed Medication Because of Co-Pay

in #news7 years ago

Also, fact check:

It isn't that she couldn't afford it or didn't have the money.

From the WSJ, quoting her husband.

Ms. Holland went to the pharmacy. She learned the antiviral medication would cost her $116 under the prescription-drug coverage she had as a teacher, and she refused it. They had the money, Mr. Holland said: “It’s principle with her. She’s a very frugal person in general, always has been.”

It doesn't change that price had something to do with it, but there seems a meaningful difference between inability to pay and choosing not to.

If she hadn't been a teacher with stable income, she'd probably have qualified for a different plan that absorbed more of the cost.

So this is a situation of someone who wasn't poor making a stingy marginal decision more than it's a situation of "look what happens when you don't have money".