Letter to the editor: More need access to psoriasis treatments

Sheila Rittenberg, senior director of advocacy and external affairs for National Psoriasis Foundation, submitted the following letter to the editor in response to a February 4 article in the Charleston Daily Mail. The letter was published in the February 11 edition.

To the editor:

I applaud Monica Orosz's February 4 article, "Child thrives with the right treatment." She hit the mark spot on about psoriasis—it's a serious autoimmune disease that causes painful, itchy lesions and must be treated.

Orosz also briefly touched on an issue many patients with psoriasis face—the need to negotiate with insurance companies to get their needed treatment approved.

In the case of the Morris', they successfully worked with their insurance company to cover a portion of the cost of a "light therapy bed" for their home and raised money to cover the rest. However, thousands of others who need phototherapy, a widely prescribed psoriasis treatment, aren't as fortunate due to high copayments costs, which can be as high as $50 for each in-office treatment.

Recently, the Psoriasis Foundation surveyed more than 1,000 dermatologists across the country. Ninety percent of those who responded confirmed that high co-payments prevent patients from pursuing phototherapy.

Unless copayments are reduced or eliminated, the number of patients who are unable to afford effective care will continue to rise. And until a cure is found, all patients deserve the right to treatments that can help alleviate their painful and often debilitating symptoms.

Soaring phototherapy copayments signal the demise of this reliable, safe form of treatment for psoriasis. The National Psoriasis Foundation is now in contact with insurance commissioners around the country asking them to intervene. To help move this cause forward, anyone with experience facing barriers to access to care is encouraged to contact advocacy@psoriasis.org.