Monica is 28-year cancer survivor. In 1992, at the age of 19, she was diagnosed with stage III Hodgkins Lymphoma. In 2004 she received a stage I breast cancer diagnosis, which returned in 2011 as stage III and yet again in 2015 as stage IV. Her stage IV metastatic breast cancer is not currently curable.
Monica has been dealing with her cancer for several decades but in the past five years she started having trouble obtaining her doctor prescribed medications. “I have had to fight with the insurance company to authorize my new cancer treatments, after they’ve already been prescribed by my provider. Then the steps to it getting filled are like a maze, and the pharmacy will tell me it can be two weeks before I actually get the medicine. Cancer doesn't wait two weeks.”
Monica now encounters issues with the prior authorization process almost every time she’s prescribed a new treatment. She spends hours on the phone fighting with her insurance over when she can get her prescriptions filled and often her nurse or doctor are forced to do the same. “It’s frantic. When you’re running into a barrier on day one, you want treatment immediately, and it’s upsetting when you’re not able to get access to it.”
Monica realizes how lucky she is to have the strength to be her own advocate. “It feels like they’re hoping you give up. And what about elderly patients or people who speak English as a second language? If I struggle this hard, what about those people who don’t have the time or the ability to fight?”
“Cancer sucks, and it’s frustrating that most of the barriers to staying alive that we face are so easily fixable. I have lived a productive wonderful life with cancer for 28 years. We are living longer and deserve the care to live a quality life without shouldering these extra burdens.”
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