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Comment by aeberbach | Hacker News Reader

"Gleevec became a breakthrough, helping almost every patient with a particular rare blood cancer, chronic myelogenous leukemia. Patients stay on it for years, and it is so valuable that Novartis has quadrupled its annual price from $24,000 per year in 2001 to more than $90,000 today. Even the stingiest insurers pay, though some patients get it free."

I am also in a country where you don't have to choose between pay or die, and I'm thankful for that. Seeing this kind of thing in print certainly makes you look twice and appreciate what you have.

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Unfortunately I'm in the U.S. and if I had to pay $3,000 per box of that medicine (at 2 boxes a month) I would have to die because I simply do not make that much money. It's literally more than 100% of my entire income. I'm jealous, lol.

Under Obamacare, your annual out-of-pocket maximum would be $6,350. You still have to pay the Obamacare premium on top of that. But the end result is that you would only have to pay about 10% of the $92,000 annual list price of Gleevec.

Note that grandfathered plans are not subject to the out-of-pocket maximum until 2015.

P.S. Remember to vote in the 2014 and 2016 general elections if you live in a swing state.

> if you live in a swing state

This is toxic to democracy. People should vote no matter the state where they live otherwise it is only a tiny sliver of the swings that decided who rules the country and this allows for the money influx because you only have to buy/brainwash that sliver.

If a modern democracy manages to have 80% voter turnout you will be surprise how many safe seats will be not so safe.

So just vote - no matter where you live. It is your civil duty.

> If a modern democracy manages to have 80% voter turnout you will be surprise how many safe seats will be not so safe.

Are you suggesting that "people who decide to vote" is not a representative sample of the whole population? I am not sure of that, and a quick Google search shows mixed results.

> So just vote - no matter where you live. It is your civil duty.

I feel no loyalty to my country. I don't give a crap about civil duty. Most people I interact with feel the same way.

> If a modern democracy manages to have 80% voter turnout you will be surprise how many safe seats will be not so safe.

I really want to believe that's true, but I'm skeptical. Do you have any sort of research backing that up?

lol is an odd response to your situation...

Hmm. $90,000 per year. Looks like people in developing world like India are out of luck.

Or in a fully developed country where you don't have insurance, or if it doesn't cover it. In my country(Poland) it's fully covered by the national insurance,which is not very expensive,and if you are poor you don't have to pay anyway - and are still fully covered.

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