My health insurer wants cancer to win

On Nov. 19, 2024, I was diagnosed with polycythemia vera, a rare blood cancer. The day was a blur, but I remember my hematologist, Dr. Fadi Haddad at Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center, drawing a picture of my pelvic bones on medical paper to explain my body’s blood production. A gene mutation was causing my bones to make too much red blood, he told me. With treatment, I had perhaps 30 years until my marrow started to give out. After that, treatment could offer perhaps five to seven more years. Then acute myeloid leukemia would set in. That timeline suggested I could live into my 80s — not bad, all things considered. It assumed, however, access to a specialty medication called Jakafi that would cost me about $9,000 per month (you read that right: per month). Dr. Haddad suggested that I ap