Health Providers, Politics, and Cancer Patients in Germany

If you're imagining--as I was until about five minutes ago--that you'd never be turned down for an essential medical treatment in generous Germany, you're in for a shock.

My oncologist is apoplectic--as am I. The treatment is, natürlich, eye-poppingly costly (around 9,000 euro per infusion) but there are women right here in Germany getting their fortieth infusions. Every three weeks.

Without it, I'm on a standard chemotherapy causing un-appetizing side effects, most of which I won't list, since they'd turn your stomach, but but one of them is exhaustion and another is a sort of miracle ageing effect; I have a gray buzz cut, sallow skin, and saggy eyes giving me the expression of a serial killer or a grumpy grandma, depending on the light and my degree of fatigue. 

The miracle drug--never mind the name; they all have names sounding like Disney princesses or space aliens--usually doesn't cause side effects and works much, much better than the standard stuff. 

Tecnically--ah, that word fueling bureaucrats!--what I'm asking for is listed as "off-label" for my condition, but the insurance company and the pharmaceutical companies and the European Medical Agency and the lawyers and just everybody knows the stuff will be reclassified as standard within three months. 

So the insurance company wants to avoid the three months and then have to pay for the next zillion months? Because yes, folks, that's what the stuff is likely to give me. 

That kind of time is a big change. Oncologists are a like drug dealers: they sidle up, show you the box of the very latest cancer pills, and whisper, "This'll give ya another five years." And it does! It really does!

But then you have your routine CT scan after five and a half years, and your oncologist thinks it'll all be smooth sailing, but a new metastasis appears and then--"here's this other great new stuff that'll give ya another five years!" At the end of which it has continued to work for many women. If not, the new stuff in the pipeline often does.

If the insurance company will pay. And they can. Most clients aren't in the middle of expensive illnesses. There's only a few of us, and hey, I work and I pay taxes and I provided the German state with three kids who are solid citizens, terrific students and working hard toward their university degrees. 

So the company can afford me. I'm worth it. Pony up the dough! 

 

P.S. Have been trying to reply to the last comment on resources for U.S. women needing Enhertu and there's some glitch. My reply: There's no compassionate use program planned for Germany. (Or, I believe, Europe).