NEW DATA
When out-of-pocket costs drive breast cancer decisions, women pay the price
While advances in breast cancer early detection and treatment have dramatically reduced mortality — high out-of-pocket costs (i.e. co-pays charged by health plans) have made screening, diagnostic tests and lifesaving therapies frustratingly out of reach for many American women, even women who have health insurance.
No Patient Left Behind is a network of biotechnology innovators, investors, economists, healthcare professionals, and patients working together to support solutions that lower out-of-pocket costs and preserve incentives for innovation.
Our goals:
Eliminate out-of-pocket costs
Preserve and expedite development of the cures we still need
Ensure drugs go generic on time
Inspire all countries to appreciate the value of medicines and contribute their fair share to incentivizing innovation
New medicines
benefit all of us.
New treatments and cures help more than just those who need them today.
When a sick person gets better, their family and colleagues benefit, their caregivers are liberated to help others, and everyone’s productivity is restored. And we all derive some peace of mind knowing that medicines will be available to us should we fall ill. Every medical advance is a permanent step forward, expanding society’s medicine cabinet and forever upgrading human health.
Drugs must go generic without undue delay.
Drug manufacturers that block generic entry skirt the intent of the patent system: to promote innovation and ensure that advances become inexpensive.
Congress should strengthen existing laws and create new regulations that ensure drugs go generic without undue delay, getting society maximal value for what it pays for medicines, freeing up room in society’s budget to incentivize yet more novel medicines, and spurring industry to keep innovating, offering hope for patients still waiting for their cures. But whether the medicines are novel or generic, it is the role of proper insurance to make appropriate treatments accessible and affordable to everyone who needs them.
Health insurance is broken for many.
Medicines save lives, but out-of-pocket costs and inappropriate denials block access.
Insurance should cover prescribed treatments without high out-of-pocket costs. Otherwise, what are premiums for?
Featured Resources
Press Releases
Become a First Responder & Thought Partner
Sign up to receive action alerts. Our letters get read in Congress because of the credibility of our First Responders and their willingness to sign on. Help protect access to lifesaving medicines & preserve innovation for those still waiting for a cure. Your signature can make a difference.
Join the conversation.
Follow us here for advice on how to deal with health insurance companies, insights into the root of healthcare problems you read about elsewhere, and news of our initiatives.