Cost of treatment until now

Over the past month I've realized the fact that cancer treatment is a costly affair and made me think how difficult it would be for poor people to get through it. It has also re-emphasised the importance of proper and adequate insurance coverage.

The following are the details of the treatment cost in Mom's case:

- Diagnostic tests - Rs. 15000/-
- Surgery - Rs 65000/-
- Radiotherapy - Rs 102000/-
- Hormone therapy 5 yrs (1 Arimidex tablet daily) - 5 * 365 * Rs. 233/- = Rs. 425225/-

My corporate insurance with United India Insurance has covered the first 3. But there is no approval on Hormone therapy as yet and I'm very skeptical that it would come.

Another patient whom we had met during Mom's surgery in Rangadore hospital suggested us to get the cancer medicines from the Kidwai Memorial hospital drug store. It's a government hospital and they sell the medicines there on discounted price and not on MRP. I checked there and got the Arimidex tablet at a discounted price of Rs. 173/-. So the total cost for this medicine would be:

5 * 365 * Rs. 173/-  = Rs. 315725/-

I'm amazed how much money the drug companies make on these drugs. Read somewhere that Astra Zeneca, the Arimidex manufacturer has sales of around $2-3 billion from just this drug annually.

Besides it made me realize that how much margins the pharma retailers make on medicine sales and state governments in India are doing their bit at providing these at lower costs.