Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez spoke at the House Oversight and Reform committee last week. The discussion was about the inflated prices of prescription drugs. I think we are all within one to three degrees of separation from someone whose health is at risk because they cannot afford their medication. Alexandria was one degree from someone, and that person was her father, who died of lung cancer in 2008. The treatment the family pursued to keep him alive crippled them financially, which is why, Alexandria said, she was working at a bar before she was elected to congress.
New York City Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez knows first-hand the toll illness can take on a family, having lost her father to cancer in 2008.
The congresswoman, 29, recently relayed the story of dad Sergio Ocasio-Roman’s struggle and the financial tailspin into which his loved ones were plunged after his death.
“When I was 16 years old, my father was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a prescription drug prices hearing held by the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Friday. “He was in experimental trials in order to save his life. My family almost lost our home in order to try to keep him alive and just try to keep our family together.”
Ocasio-Roman, 48, died in September 2008 — just before his daughter started her sophomore year at Boston University.
“Many people know that I was working in a restaurant when I got elected [last year], but they don’t know why,” Ocasio-Cortez said at the hearing. “And the reason why was because we lost my father to a rare form of lung cancer. We couldn’t find treatment for him.”
The Democratic lawmaker then turned her attention to the patients present at the hearing, including Sa’ra Skipper of Indianapolis, who has diabetes and pays $1,000 per month with insurance for her insulin.
“When insulin was first developed, the patent was sold for $1. Do you know the reason why it’s $1,000 with insurance for you?” Ocasio-Cortez asked. “Neither do I. Frankly, I don’t think corporations will give us a reason why.”
I’ve spoken before about healthcare. My family’s insurance company picked up a tab we didn’t expect them to (self-inflicted wound). Had they not, it would have changed the course of our lives. We would’ve never recovered financially. I currently have two friends in diabetic hell due to the cost of insulin. It’s terrifying. Alexandria’s story is unfortunately not uncommon. Many families have lost their home or taken on second jobs to try to cover medical expenses. I like that the Freshman class in Congress is legislating from real experience, not just theory. It’s easy to vote down a minimum wage bill when Daddy funded your Ivy League school. But Alexandria worked a bar job to save her father’s life. And she kept at it because she couldn’t come out from under the crushing medical bill. I’ll bet 90% of those in Congress don’t have any idea what that’s like so of course they have no problem saying universal healthcare isn’t necessary.
I like AOC, even if our politics are not always aligned. I think she’s a good counter-balance to the entrenched politicians in Congress right now. I do not know understand the constant string of insulting language used towards her. Later in the People article I referenced above, the author wrote:
Ocasio-Cortez, one of the House of Representatives’ most prominent progressive voices, is an advocate for universal health care, frequently invoking her father’s illness and resulting turmoil.
By way of example, People embedded the tweet AOC posted as tribute to her late father on the 10 year anniversary of his death. She is mourning the loss of her father, who didn’t live to see how high on the ladder his daughter is rising. She is using her personal experiences to help govern her constituents. She is not invoking her dead dad for her personal gain or sympathy. Do better, media.
Photo credit: Getty Images
But they say it’s fine to mention parents for nepotism on the part of Sarah Huckabee, Ivanka, and Meghan McCain. the media is gross.
To piggyback on what you’re saying…
Because in the United States, there are two sets of social rules: one for white people and one for black and brown people. Even if a black or brown person lives in a predominately white space, they are still subject to a different set of standards. Black people can live next door to white people and have completely different experiences.
But here’s the kicker: black and brown people have been trying to explain this to white folks for decades, if not centuries. And for the most part, it goes in one ear and right out the other. Even today, the overwhelming majority of white people still think that racism and implicit bias are conscience, individual acts of violence or meanness. Plus, most suffer from extreme “white fragility” (a sociological term that speaks to white people’s defensiveness when it comes to the topic of race) and blindspots — including white liberals and progressives.
I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it: If you really truly want this bullshit to end, if you really truly think you’re not racist, you must dig deep and realize that you are. That you employ your own double standards and have huge blindspots. We all do. We were socialized into fundamentally racist societies. But it’s agonizing work, and most people just can’t do it.
+10000 Ader, I could’t have said it better. I’m actually reading a book called White Fragility by Robin D’Angelo right now, it’s really opening my eyes to the ways the system of racism is perpetuated (even by ‘non-racist’ liberals). I’m a woman of color and I didn’t know a lot of this stuff… agonizing work is totally spot-on
Oh my goodness. This. Actual nepotism with your trashy, clingy, ignorant, unqualified family is fine.
Mentioning that you gained insight into a situation because of a family member because of a family member is unacceptable.
The double standard is vile.
If not for my husband’s very good employer-provided insurance and an excellent pharmacist who pursues exemptions for me, we would not be able to afford the 10 prescriptions I take to manage my chronic illness.
TEN prescriptions. Sigh.
Glad you’re getting the care you need.
Thanks Kitten. I carry them in a sequined makeup pouch so it looks pretty, at least?
I remember when my mother was undergoing treatment for multiple myeloma. At some point, she developed a blood clot in her leg & required hospitalization. She then needed some specific shot 1x/day for that clot. I think she needed the shot for a week straight, but only needed to be in the hospital a couple of days. While in the hospital, the shot was covered by Medicare, but after discharge the cost was hers to pay & shot up to well over $1500/shot; my mom said no. I’m not going anywhere or I’m not taking that shot. Her doctors worked their tails off to keep her in the hospital one more day while trying to find a program that would pay for those shots. They did & she was able to go home, and got her shots for the rest of the week. What a horrible ridiculous system.
” I do not know understand the constant string of insulting language used towards her. ”
two things: misogyny and racism.
Yep.
Exactly that. You’re not allowed to have an intelligent Latina woman speak up..how dare she!
Major misogyny to the nth degree. She’s an attractive young woman. Right-Wing pundits like Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, and Ryan Saavedra make no effort to hide their lust for her. But, in their view, women are supposed to bow to their, in their minds, superior male intellect in all things. If a woman won’t, she must be punished for attracting them to her in the first place. And if she’s a woman of color, forbidden fruit to these racists, the punishment must be severe. Shapiro, in particular, tweets dozens of attacks on her daily and he retweets the attacks of the others. During an interview with the BBC, he repeatedly tried to go off on tangents about her and when the interviewer kept bringing him back on topic, he threw a tantrum and huffed off. It would be comical if not so disgusting and dangerous. Their followers truly are incited to harm her.
I don’t think any of those people are attracted to her. I think they’re using her to make a bogeyman that hits at their followers’ deepest fears, in the same way they scream about migrants and Muslims and black people in ghettos. By insisting that they’re attracted to her, we’re perpetrating this old myth that men and boys who insult and degrade women are “only doing it because they like you.” That is categorically untrue, and we know it. They’re using AOC and tweeting about her ten, twenty times a day, because it drives up engagement and brings them more and more followers. They’re using her to exploit the fears of their audience, because fear sells more than anything else in the world. Ben Shapiro went on the BBC because he thought they’d be like Fox News, and allow him an unrepentant platform to spew his BS unchallenged. He thought he could use his regular tactics of fear based incitement and got pissed that he wasn’t allowed to do it. He has no use for any publicity where he has to deviate from his regular strategy. The worst part is that his follower base will buy his defence that the BBC, by challenging him, is simply refusing to let him speak the truth.
I live in Canada and I’m still in debt over my healthcare needs. Not everything is covered. I couldn’t imagine living in the states – I seriously can’t, I would be dead.
I feel for everyone fighting this battle in the states. Your healthcare shouldn’t bankrupt you.
It’s disgusting that we allow healthcare to be run like a business. Insurance companies should not be giving massive bonuses to their boards every year while refusing to cover patients. Congress refuses to regulate or oversee these predatory institutions. I know too many people who go without meds or take lower doses than prescribed because they’re trying to make them last. It makes me so incredibly angry.
I’m glad your insurance pulled through for you, Hecate. There are far too many stories about people going bankrupt while treating their debilitating, chronic illness. I cannot imagine the amount of stress and anxiety I would feel in that situation. Hell, it’s bad enough trying to get through each day when you are in unfathomable pain but to then have to worry about the financial strain is just…it’s just not normal.
I mostly love AOC and Pressley is my rep so…
And Omar and Tlaib are great IMO. I’m really thankful for their energy and unapologetic fight. The left NEEDS that right now. So proud of these amazing women.
AOC is mine. The use of her first name only in the article threw me. She’s a Congressperson. I’m sensitive to the ways she’s constantly put down, minimized and disrespected. It’s obviously minor, but it doesn’t help.
Two things:
I spent years buying my mothers heart meds from the Caribbean. Then, my dad also died of lung cancer and it bankrupted my mother in his death. She lost their house and everything she had, including her lifelong husband. She’s currently on Medicare, disability payments, and as a cardiac patient, it’s crippling to even pay for her own health.
Second, the statement about why things cost so much also hits home in a less dramatic way. Between my husband and me, we have 5 prescription each month. During July, we were uninsured by choice while I was waiting between jobs. Our meds, total, for all five? Under $50. We paid nearly $100 a month when we were insured.
What the actual f— is going on that meds are cheaper when you have no insurance?
I learned through my daughter’s meds that it is always good to ask the retail cost because it may be much cheaper than you think. We found out her meds were $30/mo retail and took her out of the insurance yoyo over approvals and brand changes and just started buying them retail.
I live in Canada, and just recently saw on the news how buses filled with Americans drive over the border to buy insulin because it is 1/3 of the price here. America brags about being the “richest country in the world” but it doesn’t give one sh*t about it’s citizens. Yes we pay a lot of taxes in Canada, but collectively it’s worth it as so much of our healthcare is free (not all but much of it is) and drug prices are much lower than in America. So much greed.
We’re not actually the richest country in the world. We have the largest GDP, but wealth is measured on a per capita basis. We’re not even in the top ten of richest countries. We *could* be the richest country but we’re supporting a billionaire welfare class.
I know you’re not actually the “richest” but America tends to BRAG about it as IF they are the richest. Sorry I worded that wrong.
It’s because most people here don’t understand the difference between GDP and wealth, which is deliberately conflated in the news to keep people ignorant of that difference.
Interesting distinction, Algernon. I had no idea!
Yes we come in droves for prescription drugs; however, when my Canadian friend had a child born with a hole in her heart, he went directly to the USA (New York City) because the Canadian wait for surgery was beyond what the child could medically sustain. We also have some of the best hospitals in the world along the East coast. My third cousin (who is Canadian) was diagnosed with Cancer and came to the USA because the plan they put together for her in Canada was not aggressive enough, nor did she have access to specialists without waiting months on end. Sadly, with health insurance, there’s always a catch (at least for now).
We live in Manitoba, our cancer care clinic was very quick and efficient. I have heard of long waiting periods from other areas of the country and from my personal experience I was fortunate not to have to wait months for diagnosis or treatment. I did not have tp pay for the financially crushing prescription drugs or wait months for surgery or follow up treatments. I don’t know the circumstances of your provincial health care system, but ours is better than the criticism it receives. I am not selling our home to afford treatment or limiting my intake of prescription drugs because of the cost. My daughter is diabetic, because of her insurance she doesn’t pay for her insulin. Right now there is a five hour wait for emergency care at my local hospital, but the payoff for a 5 hour wait is zero medical costs. Each time I hear critical comments about our health care system I tell them to look at the US.
My family has had alot of major health issues and they’ve all been dealt with quickly and efficiently in Canada. I’m a huge supporter of our universal healthcare, it helps way more people than it hurts, something that can’t be said for countries where healthcare is treated like a business.
I recently figured out that my province has a pharmacare program, and signed up for it. When I went to pick up my latest prescriptions, the pharmacist said it was entirely free of charge. I was blown away. I’d been paying almost $130 before my insurance could kick in for these meds, and now they’re completely covered. Not a day goes by that I’m not thankful for this.
They are in fact my personal experiences. My point is that there is absolutely no perfect system. Slam the USA if you want, slam Canada, but there is sadly no utopia as of yet. My cousin is a cancer survivor in the USA, and she was not crushed financially. She was insured. Her health ins co paid for radiation and prescriptions. She received cancer care in Philadelphia from some of the top cancer doctors in the world, let along the country. The problem in the USA is when you don’t have a traditional “job” with a large enough entity to carry a high quality group health insurance. The problem in Canada, as I see it, is that you pay an astronomical amount for food, housing and taxes. Many may say they could not afford orange juice in Canada let alone taxes. The money needs to come from somewhere. The US & Canada are prime examples.
FYI, today (August 1) is #WorldLungCancerDay. I lost my mom to the same disease in 2013.
My heart goes out to you.
I feel her. My Mom had a psychotic break brought on by Alzheimers. She had to stay in a psych ward, and then they recommended a special program for seniors with her kind of issues. That saved her life and mine. If I didn’t live in Canada where this was covered it would have bankrupted me and my mom. I don’t know how other people do it and my heart goes out to those who are making these hard decisions every single day.
My dad died of AIDS-related complications when I was 7. Growing up in a single-parent household was difficult enough but we managed. I don’t want to imagine how broke we would have been had we lived south of the border, my brother and I’s futures would have been cancelled before we even reached 10yo, it makes no sense!
Canada’s healthcare is far from perfect, especially when it comes to mental health and long-term disabilities, but we have a decent coverage nonetheless. Every time I see/read about the situation in the US, I want to scream. To think that some justify the status quo because universal healthcare would limit one’s freedom is so frustrating: what’s freeing in risking losing everything because you’re unlucky enough to get cancer or born diabetic?
“I don’t know how other people do it”
They don’t. After they bankrupt you, they let you die.
I several health issues (asthma, hypothyroid) and my medicines are expensive. If I did not have a health insurance from my job, I couldn’t afford anything. Hell, my inhaler cost $75 without insurance. It’s sad.
As long as greed rules this country, we are all hosed–unless of course you are uber rich.
I really hope people get off their collective butts and get out there and vote for people who actually want to make this country better and pass laws for EVERYONE, not just the 1%.
We don’t have any chronic health issues, but I have good health insurance (federal employee) and honestly its one of the reasons I can never leave this job. I know how fast you can go from “no health issues” to “serious life threatening issues”. My husband’s work offers health insurance, but its a lot more expensive and doesn’t cover as much.
Our healthcare system is a mess and honestly I’m not sure how we can fix it.
Insurance needs have guided my entire career. I had to avoid employment risks because of my terrible family history.
What AOC is fighting for is important and just a drop in the bucket of much needed healthcare reform as a whole. I hope she keeps championing these personal battles because that’s what makes a great civil servant.
That said, this site needs to stop harping on the “ivy league”. First the Ivy League is just an colonial era divisional grouping for collegiate sports (most people don’t even know which 8 schools are included). Keep in mind there weren’t that many universities back then. They are not predetermined to be the best universities nor do they deserve all your disdain. There are many students of all social economic classes who attend these 8 schools.
This is not the first time this site has categorizes “ivy leaguer” as useless rich brats who bought their way to the top. Given your coverage is Op Varsity Blues, don’t you see that the silver spoon serves all schools?
Some of the world’s most amazing discoveries and inventions occurred at these “nepotism” schools. Including the very technology platform that enables this site to exist.
I’ve stocked up on thyroid meds from India since I was diagnosed 9 years ago. Retail cost for a year’s supply…$4 (yep, four). I get regularly tested to make sure my levels are ok. My US doc tells me to keep going with my Indian meds.
For a very short time, I took Metformin (glucophage) which has been out and about for 50 years (ie…no big recent research fees to justify high prices). Cost in India: 10 cents for a flap of several pills…I don’t remember whether 10 or 20.
Yes, there are expensive new meds in India for specific conditions. But not these basic ones…
I live in Mexico, and while we almost have free healthcare, the service is deficient. We have two massive programs which are IMSS and ISSSTE. IMSS by law should be given to any employee by the company they work for. Issste is for people working for the state departments. And finally we have Popular Healthcare which is payed by the government for people who are not insured.
Yet the service is inefficient, to get an appointment with an specialist could take up months. So most people – people who can pay/ end up going to a private hospital and clinic to see specialists and we end up paying our medicines instead of getting them for free.
Whenever I visit the US, I enter by car in the Tijuana Line and there are lots of pharmacies by the border and you can see lines of Americans crossing to Mexico to buy their medicine.
Heck, my family is from India. There is a degree of government funded healthcare at both the state and central level, and so the quality of govt healthcare will vary state by state. But the fact is, for a country as poor as India, there are definitely elements of the govt provided healthcare that are absolutely phenomenal. There are some states in recent years that are coming out with some really good initiatives such as changing the hours of govt clinics to accommodate the working hours of the poor, and there’s a degree of universal pharmacare that has been implemented as well.
And more importantly, the people there know the value of the service. I’ve talked to some of the people there, and they’re absolutely baffled at the notion that people who cannot afford healthcare would reject the government trying to help them pay for it. There are, of course, disparities and there’s so much work to be done, but it boggles my mind that America, of ALL the countries in the world, is still dragging its feet on this issue.
Hillary Clinton is the person who introduced me to Universal Healthcare…that was in 1993….I was 22 years old…by that time, I was WELL acclimated with how horrible the healthcare system…having been born, in 1967 with a hole in my heart…and coming from a working class background…and being…of course…Black…
When Hillary spoke so passionately about Universal Healthcare back then…I IMMEDIATELY went to libraries…any and every source I could…to learn about this system…I focused mainly on Great Britain’s NHS (National Healthcare Services)…I learned about how Health Maintenance Organizations got traction in this country…thanks to POTUS Nixon selling us out to Mr. Kaiser….and I learned how POTUS Reagan added dynamite to the horrible fire that WAS healthcare at that time….
I am 51 years old….I know my life might be cut short because I didn’t have access to healthcare from 2001- 2012…because I KEPT getting laid off due to having a Republican POTUS for so long….and even before then…there were times when I went without healthcare…because I worked at companies whose healthcare plans were too expensive…I even worked at ONE JOB when I was 24…where the owners of the company…2 older women…purchased an employee based healthcare plan that DID NOT INCLUDED OBSTETRICS! They said that they did that because it was cheaper…and because THEY were menopausal….
I am SICK and TIRED of only being able to access healthcare, via a job…
I am SICK AND TIRED of the healthcare corporations having ALL POWER when it comes to manipulating healthcare plans and the costs…I am SICK AND TIRED of seeing the CEOs of healthcare corporations getting MILLIONS of dollars in pay…while I, as a single woman, have to pay up to $8k out of pocket before my health insurance pays 100%…and after 40 years of wage stagnation….it doesn’t take $10k to sink folks…folks are sinking with $1k worth of debt….
I want not ONE for-profit healthcare corporation to exist…I want PROFIT taken OUT of healthcare so that the money can go into developing drugs whose side-effects won’t kill you…and paying healthcare workers and healthcare facilities the $ they so desperately need and earn….
A change…has GOT to come
I have a friend who had to take her daughter to the ER. They subsequently took their already scheduled summer vacation. When they got back from vacation, they were greeted with a $4000 bill from the ER due to the fact that their deductible hadn’t been met.
My family, thankfully, has pretty good insurance including vision coverage. My son had the nerve to complain about going to the eye doctor last week and I let him know that he should be grateful that he has the privilege of going to get his eyes checked and get glasses because there are a lot of families that don’t have that privilege.
Health care in the county is a travesty. The reason that more people aren’t in favor of Medicare for all is because they assume that what health care providers charge (i.e., $525,000 for 2 weeks of dialysis) is what healthcare actually costs. There needs to be a lot more education on this subject.
THIS!!!!!!!!!!!
I work in HC and KNOW the payment schedule that hospitals…medical facilities…and medical workers get from the HMOs….
If a procedure is billed at $50,000…the medical portion will be LUCKY to see $10k of that….REALLY REALLY LUCKY! The rest goes straight to the HMOs…
I have a chronic illness that leaves me incapable of holding a steady job or finishing a semester of school without missing half my classes. I also live in a state that did not accept the money offered for medicaid expansion after the ACA was passed which means that I do not have insurance. I have been trying to get approved for disability medicaid for several years now, but the county hospital very mysteriously “lost” the records for several of my hospital visits.
My father, on the other hand, had all the documentation that they could have asked for when he applied for disability. He was approved…three months after he died.
Yeah, I’m not bitter at all. Can you guys tell?
I don’t understand the connection between her father’s death and her working in a restaurant 10 years later. Let me rephrase that: there is no connection between her father’s death and her working in a restaurant 10 years later. There is nothing wrong with working in a restaurant. Drug prices are too high and healthcare can be unaffordable, and it’s a big problem that needs a solution. There is no connection between her father’s death due to scarce and expensive treatment in 2008 and and her working in a bar in 2018.
To me it sounds like she still had to help paying off the debt caused by those medical bills?
I believe there is a connection. I once had an uninsured hospitalization. It took me 10 years to pay it off and ruined my credit score for years beyond that. We’re talking six figures and so I bet lung cancer treatments would be even more expensive. That’s my “folksy, authentic and popular” experience.
GTFO
Sounds like you are fortunate enough to never have experienced debilitating medical debt.
Not everyone is as lucky.
We have UH and I have, additionally, private insurance. I still have to pay for medicine for my thyroid and insulin-resistance. However, my diabetic mother has everything covered. I can’t understand why people think UH is such a sin. It would save millions of lives.
The problem is the profit motive. What is a suitable markup for drug prices? Who gets to decide what the markup is ? prices for medical procedure?
Had it not been for the removal of lifetime cap and not worrying about pre-existing conditions, my mom would’ve been deep in debt with my dads medical bills. Thank you Obamacare.
I remember when, a very long time ago, I heard a story/joke about the American health care system. It came up during a discussion the adults were having about the subject of health care in Canada vs the US. It was about a doctor, a cardiac surgeon in the US, who was making an upwards of six figures with his practice. Then one day, he received a diagnosis of cancer. A year later, he was free of cancer, but he was homeless, bankrupt, and living under a bridge. I laughed at it then, and scoffed because surely, SURELY, there wasn’t any chance that this was actually the case, there’s no way things were really this bad in the US, this was just an exaggeration of the highest order. And then it turns out that no, it wasn’t. -sigh-
Has anyone noticed that the price of assisted living is also next-level insane? My grandmother has dementia and it costs well over $8,000 a month. Would love to know what they’re actually spending it on, considering that the very kind and dedicated employees who take care of her day-to-day needs are probably paid peanuts and her doctor’s visits and whatnot aren’t included. I shudder to think what happens to the families who don’t have the resources/insurance.
I come from a socialist country that had a great health care. basically everyone could afford it. it’s changing now though but it’s still not as bad as other places. I remember getting all my teeth fixed before moving to London cause I heard how expenssive it was and service was not as good. But, just a couple of weeks after I moved, while I was still waiting for my social number I had a flu and got an infection that was below the roots of one tooth. I stuck with it for few days but then on Sunday it got so bad no painkillers helped and it was just horrible pain. Not having a doctor of my own yet I had to go to a private clinic. They could either give me antibiotics and see if it would go away after few weeks or pull my tooth out, although it was a healthy tooth apparently the infection was too strong. Having so much pain I said – just take it out. They charged me 500 pounds for it, guy never closed my wound properly so when I got back to my country I had to go take care of that – for free. Let me tell you that after he told me the price I almost fainted. Like I didn’t need any pain killers for the extraction.