My medication costs $15,000 a month. I’m 17 and already worried about paying for it.
By Kayla Adames
September 22, 2026
Youthcast Media Group®
The life saving medication I need costs $15,000 — a month. And that price isn’t dropping anytime soon.
On and off for the past eight years, I have needed special medications to manage two autoimmune conditions that I was diagnosed with in elementary school. Without regular immunotherapy infusions, I get debilitating migraines and am more prone to common illnesses — like colds and viruses — that can wreak havoc on my body.
I am 17 years old, a high school senior with ambitions of going to college and studying biochemistry. But the need for these medications will likely follow me through the rest of my life — which means my parents are stuck with a serious financial burden until I’m old enough to shoulder it on my own.
I was first diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) in 2018 when I was in fourth grade. Then, four years later, I was diagnosed with another autoimmune condition called neuromyelitis optica (NMO). These diagnoses caused me a lot of uncertainty as I suddenly needed to figure out how to live a normal teenage life amid a constant string of appointments. In between homework, debate club, SAT prep and college applications, I am constantly going to the doctor for blood tests, MRIs and follow-ups with different specialists.
This has been difficult for me to balance, but my illness is even more anxiety-inducing for my mom and dad. Not only do they have to make sure I am healthy and well, but they also have to work even harder to pay for all of my medical expenses. And that’s not to mention all of the other expenses that come with having a high schooler, like supplies, clothes and college application fees.
Even though both of my parents have employer-sponsored health insurance that I’m covered under — my mom works as a medical assistant and my dad is an environmental services worker — they are still left with co-pays, deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for my care. That adds up to about $873 a month until they hit their yearly family out-of-pocket maximum of $20,000. And then there’s the emergency expenses, like when I had to be hospitalized for the first time in 2018 because my platelet levels fell dangerously low. Those four days in the hospital alone cost my parents $12,000, even after their insurance kicked in.
My parents' ability to afford my health expenses is dependent on their employment status — a precarious dynamic common in the United States, one of the only developed nations that ties health coverage to jobs in this way. Luckily my parents enjoy their work, even though the hours are long and demanding. But nearly one in four U.S. workers say they feel stuck in unwanted jobs just so they can maintain their health insurance coverage, according to a poll released in July by the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America.
Unfortunately, my family is not unique; there are millions of us out there who must endure burdensome costs in order to access lifelong care. Over 15 million people — or 4.6% of the U.S. population — were diagnosed with at least one autoimmune disease between 2011 and 2022, according to the Journal of Clinical Investigation. A little more than one-third of those people, including myself, are diagnosed with more than one autoimmune disease. For us, that means even more doctors, more medications and more costs.
One in three adults with a chronic condition struggle with some kind of medical debt, according to a 2025 report by the Patient Advocate Foundation, a healthcare nonprofit that surveyed about 2,000 adults. That debt often puts a strain on other parts of people’s lives, and also can lead patients to delay or forgo care altogether.
Alyson Bancroft, the director of legislation, policy and alliances at Patients for Affordable Drugs, said she speaks to patients every day who must choose between spending money on their care versus other needs like rent, home repairs or their children’s college tuition.
“Folks are rightfully furious,” said Bancroft, who has type one diabetes. “We have this system that is not serving patients, and in a lot of cases is making us worse off when it’s supposed to be healing us.”
And the cost of healthcare is only getting worse: those reliant on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) experienced significant increases in their out-of-pocket premiums and deductibles when the premium tax credits expired in December 2025. ACA insurers are again expected to increase premiums in 2027, according to a report released in July by KFF and the Peterson Center on Healthcare.
Even though my parents have private health insurance, most people with chronic conditions know that it still isn’t cheap. And as prices go up, people like me with dependency on life-long medicine are absorbing the shock.
I’m thankful for all the sacrifices my parents have made for me and my health. But it makes me sad to know how many people cannot afford the care they need due to cost, and angry at the system that disproportionately burdens the people who need the most help paying for their healthcare. It also makes me worried for my own future, when I will likely have to make career decisions based on the health care my job provides. These are concerns a teenager shouldn’t have to deal with — and yet, they are top of mind as I look ahead to college.
Bancroft offered a preview of what I may also face in adulthood: she said health care access is an “ever-present consideration” as she navigates life changes and job transitions, and she is always wondering “how am I going to get the drugs that I need?”
“What kind of coverage will I have? How will I be able to access the tools that I need to stay alive?” she said. Such questions have “always loomed whenever I’ve had to think through any big life transition, or if I’ve been interested in taking any kind of risk.”
That’s why it’s critical for everyone, no matter their medical history, to understand our country’s health care system, she said. High medical costs affect everyone, even those who aren’t currently dealing with a chronic illness.
“We all participate in the healthcare system at some moment in our lives,” Bancroft said. “Somebody might not be a patient living with a chronic medical condition now, but that doesn't mean that they won't be years from now.”
Kayla Adames is in the class of 2027 at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, D.C. She worked with Youthcast Media Group mentor-editor Trisha Thadani, a Brooklyn-based journalist and former reporter for The Washington Post, on this story.
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