Healthcare Hullabaloo: Atlantic City

I thoroughly enjoyed a beautiful couple of days on the Atlantic City beach this past week. While it’s now world-famous (or perhaps infamous) for its casinos, there was a time when Atlantic City was famous for its beaches.

Not so long ago (before it descended into the post apocalyptic wasteland that it became in the 1970’s), AC was a favorite seaside destination for my family. I gleefully recall the long trips in my aunt’s blue 1964 Impala down to that mystic city.

Long days on the beach were followed by nights walking the famous boardwalk. I remember the original Steel Pier, the Million Dollar Pier, the Diving Horse, and Mr. Peanut himself hawking his wares.

But, perhaps, the thing that I recall the most clearly were the agonizing trips back home, where my siblings and I, burnt red as lobsters, squirmed and jockeyed to find a comfortable position in that un-airconditioned Impala. A few days after our seashore excursion, our skin would blister and peel off in long sheets and strips.

You see, boys and girls, in the 1960’s, we didn’t use sunscreen. Instead, we used suntan oil, that would magnify and focus the UV rays for maximum impact. Who cared about skin cancer back then – after all, the missiles from Cuba were going to be the death of us all. Let ol’ Sol do his worst.

Today, of course, I slather myself with SPF 50 before venturing out onto the sand. After all, I now know better. Too bad the damage is already done.

Coincidentally, watching the evening news in my hotel room, I was pleased to hear that the FDA had just approved a new drug for treating melanoma. This new miracle drug from Roche, Zelboraf, is particularly effective for patients with certain types of metastatic melanoma. The drug inhibits the cancer-spreading action of a particular gene, which is present in about half of people with metastatic melanoma.

This is, of course, good news for many melanoma patients. The bad news is, unfortunately, this wonder drug costs $9,400 a month (just a smidgeon over $300 a day). For that much money, you can get a beautiful oceanfront suite at an Atlantic City casino. Even if you have health insurance with prescription drug coverage, you’re going to have a tough time getting them to fork over that kind of money every month on your behalf. And most folks would have a tough time (nay, an impossible time) to come up with that kind of scratch each and every month. Even some affluent individuals would have to make sacrifices in order to cover their monthly Zelboraf tab. Conceivably, many will have to sell their pricey shore residences in order to finance their treatment…now isn’t that ironic?

This all begs the question “why does Roche charge do much for this wunder drug? Like the old joke “why does a dog lick his own privates?”, the answer is simple – they can. As the only game in town, patients can now choose the financial misery of Zelboraf or the medical misery of skin cancer.

I guess most of us will have to wait patiently for some competitive products to be approved, or for a generic form of Zelboraf to be released. On that glorious day, the only cancerous mass at the Garden State’s Seashore will be the low-life New York youth that star in a certain television reality show.

Sadly, there doesn’t appear to be any drug on the horizon that will eradicate that particular disease.

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