Kaiser Health News\u00a0is\u00a0a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n
(By Pauline Bartolone, CALmatters, for Kaiser Health News)<\/p>\n
SACRAMENTO \u2014 In a small room at a neighborhood clinic in Sacramento, a handful of hepatitis C patients wait to see their physician, hoping they\u2019ll be found sick enough to be approved for a cure.<\/p>\n
The low-income patients hope to be prescribed new breakthrough drugs, such as Sovaldi or Harvoni, which offer cures with almost no side effects. But treating the virus comes with a high price tag: at least $84,000 for a course of treatment. Getting Medi-Cal to pay for such drugs can involve a long, arduous process of tests and paperwork to prove infection has progressed to liver damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re practically dead \u2026 they\u2019ll approve you,\u201d said Laura Castillo, 54, who has been navigating the Medi-Cal system for four months to get Sovaldi. The former legal clerk said she contracted the virus from a blood transfusion in the early 1980s. Patients can live for years symptom free with hepatitis C, but left untreated, it can eventually lead to liver disease and death. Castillo has waited for treatment with substantial liver damage, which burdens her with overwhelming fatigue, depression and what she describes as a \u201cbrain fog.\u201d Read article here…..<\/a><\/p>\n Kaiser Health News\u00a0is\u00a0a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n
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