$24,303.80

My March bill for hospital charges from MSK arrived today, in the amount of $24,303.80. This bill does not cover a full month, as I had not yet been diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of March (although it seems to me that I received that news a very long time ago).  Nor does this bill cover doctors' charges or prescriptions. Moreover, I was not receiving Neupogen and Neulasta in March. My current regimen includes fortnightly shots of Neulasta at $5,000.00 a shot. Given how low my white blood cell count dropped after my first chemotherapy, I wonder if my treatment could have continued without Neupogen and/or Neulasta? Given the infection that was generated by the fractured molar that I had removed yesterday, I wonder what would have happened if my white blood cell count had still been 1.9, as it was before I received my first shot of Neupogen? 

Because I am 66 years old, the lion's share of the cost of my treatment will be reimbursed by Medicare, which is good for me, but quite a burden on other current and future taxpayers. As medical science succeeds in making more expensive new treatments like Neulasta available, it will be increasingly difficult for us as a society to put off facing the excruciating ethical questions posed by the costs of someone like me with an incurable, fatal illness who has passed his years of peak productivity.  Our society's recent massive loss of wealth is going to make it that much more difficult to avoid dealing with the ethical questions that must be resolved in order to ration healthcare in a world of finite resources.