What Comes Next After Graduation: Health Insurance and RA

I’m finishing up my graduate degree this May 2025, and while I am excited at the prospect of what comes next, one persistent anxiety I have been feeling is: what comes next if finding a full-time job with benefits becomes difficult after graduation. I will lose my current benefits, and I  rely on these benefits to access my Humira, keep updated with my rheumatologist, and take care of other health access. Losing these benefits means losing access to health services and information that I need to survive.

Biologic drugs are expensive

It’s well known that medications like Humira are prohibitively expensive, mostly due to patents and insurance companies. Thankfully, many of those patents are expiring which means biosimilars are becoming more available. This is what happened to me during my own time in having RA; I started on Humira in 2018 and only recently in 2023 switched to Hyrimoz, a biosimilar to Humira. $10,000 was billed to my insurance every two months when I was on Humira; now, roughly $3,000 is billed to insurance every two months for Hyrimoz. That’s a significant cost reduction but it’s still prohibitive as most of us (including myself) do not have an extra $1,500 or more lying around to purchase medication like this.

Not to mention that even with insurance, sometimes you still have to meet deductibles and copays to access your medications. This is why I relied on co-pay assistance (scholarship) programs, like many do, to cover expenses. Many manufacturers do have co-pay assistance (Humira; Hyrimoz; Enbrel; Remicade), so if you have not already I would encourage you to use these resources (even if you do have insurance.) With Hyrimoz assistance I don’t pay anything for my medication now. For the most part, there are scholarship programs associated with each drug manufacturer and some pharmacies too, so I would research these more if this is something you might need.

In an ideal world, though, we wouldn’t have to resort to these programs to obtain the medication that we need to live. In an ideal world, we’d have a medical system that would support us instead of operating as a business. I’m hoping that we, as a community, can come together and advocate for a system that actually encourages health and prosperity through meetings/calls/emails with legislators, sharing personal stories like the ones on this website with our current health care system, and even peaceful demonstrations.

Relying on community in times of stress

So, it's that time in my life when I’m starting to work towards applying for jobs post-graduation and this can obviously increase stress. We know that stress is related to RA, often exacerbating RA symptoms as the stress levels increase.  I am hopeful that something will work out, though, and I’m hopeful that our community members here will find support and comfort in sharing their health journeys.

In times of stress like I am feeling now, I have relied on the community here at rheumatoidarthritis.net to feel seen, to feel not alone, and to have continued access to that community will help me as I continue my professional journeys post-graduation.