Alimta Campaign

Max and Paul have both told me off for being slack with my blogging so I better get to it.  

Anyone in Australia might have noticed lately a lot of publicity in the media about mesothelioma and in particular Alimta, the chemo drug used to treat it.   Well it's not always used to treat it because it isn't on the PBS list and not everyone can affort it.   

Well it is on the PBS list if you have lung cancer from smoking but not if you have it from asbestos.  It varies from state to state but about 30-50% of mesothelioma patients can't get the drug for free and yet so far it is the drug with the most promising results.

I've been lucky because for this round of it, Medibank private, my health fund have agreed to pay - which is not that common apparently.   Otherwise it costs about $20,000 for a round of 6 chemo sessions.

Here is a link about it from the 7:30 report that you can watch. 

They did a story on it last week.  There has been a lot of media about it lately because there will be an appeal in November to try and get the government to change its mind and put it on the free list.  The government's arguement is that there is no real cost benefit.  Well I can tell you that there is.  If anyone has seen me before and after the chemo they will know that.  

I wrote to the Asbestos Diseases Society of Victoria who are involved in the Alimta campaign to ask them how I could get involved.  They said that I should write to the politicians.   Tony Abbot, the Minister for Health and Nicola Roxon, the Shadow Minister.  They also said I should send a letter to John Howard and Kevin Rudd.  

If anyone is interested you can send letters to c/o Parliament House Canberra, 2600 or via their electorate office (see www.aph.gov.au and click on House of Reps and Members) and also your local federal MP as well.  They also sent me documents with all the talking points so if anyone is interested I can email you the documents.

Update:  Since I posted Medibank Private have rejected my payments for Alimta.  I am hopeful they will be paid by another means but it involves a legal claim so I will write about it when it is over which hopefully will be soon.