[tricia keegan]

I just saw this post and had to reply as I live in Ireland, when herceptin was approved for early bc I met a lot of English people in the chemo ward who had to move here in order to get it as their primary trust would'nt pay for it,some of them were nurse's and told me she would have had to sell her house. Of course other places in the Uk did'nt have the same problem.
I was very fortunate and have had the best treatments and drugs immediatly available to me. I also post on Komen and am horrified sometimes to hear some of the ladies saying how expensive their anti nausea meds are and how they can only get so many due to the expense, especially Zofran. I felt bad as I had about two boxes of these left over from chemo that I did'nt use along with an assortment of other drugs I never needed.
I have voluntary private insurance but this only entitles me to a private room in a hospital,nothing else,the care and treatment I have had would be available to everyone. I did make one private payment before dx to see my breast surgeon asap, My appt wait time was two weeks privatly and four weeks public, I had my results in 24 hrs and a date for surgery the following week. Our system is not perfect either though and yes people have been up in arms mainly due to waiting times in the ER and a lack of beds within hospitals which means some unfortunate people have been left on trolleys after admission waiting for a bed.
I'm not sure if any system is perfect really but glad I never have to justify and scans or meds or ops to the insurance company,the way it works here is if the Dr orders it you get it although for some tests there may be a few weeks waitiing time.
A lady I know on Komen is brac + but her insurance company won't agree to her having an ooph, I asked my onc could I have tthis done and he agreed, I had a date within weeks. I do intend to see Michael Moore's film out of curiosity but agree he often does'nt give all the facts, the film is not released here anyway for another couple of weeks so I'll have plenty of time to read a few reviews!!
Just wanted to give you all an idea of how it works in Ireland, quite a few people believe our current Minister of health is trying to bring in a similar system here as you have in the States, myself included but doubt she'll succeed. Our drugs (inc tykerb ) are usually approved quite quickly and tykerb if fact was approved here before the States. As I mentioned earlier our health system is far from perfect but having had a cancer dx I have been very pleased with my level of treatments.