Every so often, actually more often then we’d like to think, the “suits” at health insurance companies sit down in their oak-lined board rooms and start flipping coins to see which of their clients will continue receiving coverage for life-saving drugs, and who will be denied.
The Immune Deficiency Foundation (IDF) is trying to knock some sense back into the insurance industry.
The latest scuffle involves a completely arbitrary rule that people who have common variable immune deficiency (CVID), after getting vaccinated, need to prove to the insurer that they actually have the disease. How? By presenting evidence that their immune systems can’t produce the necessary infection-fighting antibodies. Only then can they be eligible for coverage for their prescribed treatment regimens. Which means, you guessed it, any one with CVID who does not have this evidence has to go about procuring it, which could take months.
The medical directors at the IDF have gone so far as to issue a resolution that spells out the dangers of this practice.
People with CVID need immunoglobulin (IgG) replacement therapy throughout the course of their lives, and without it, they are subject to life-threatening infections. IgG is administered via IV once a month, or subcutaneously once a week, and patients tend to tolerate it well. It provides them with the antibodies necessary to stay healthy.
What is the sense in causing people to become seriously ill?
It’s a lot more expensive to pay for hospitalizations and life-saving medical interventions than it is to allow people to continue on their IgG therapy. The IDF rightly maintains that doctors must be the determiners of a patient’s treatment–not a bunch of “suits” sitting in an ivory tower figuring out their year-end bonuses.
