Dear Dr. Dezube: First thnx for this info being available to us all here........My best bud is in the hospital with KS external/internal. T cells are 37. The problem here is he is homeless and on medicaid and I asked the MDs to start the Doxil type chemo (from reading your posts) cause its less toxic and the MDs WONT do that type of chemo cause of his insurance; they want to do the "old" fashioned type that I basically know is way too toxic.... So my questions are can he just do HARRT and get some shrinkage in the KS?; he has done it before when he wasnt homeless and he got dramatic results in 3-4weeks...... Or is there somewhere else in (city name removed) here where they will allow Doxil to be done? It seems he gets pushed from one place to another cause of his insurance .......

This is a really difficult (and sad) query. I have dealt with many homeless patients without insurance. I removed the name of your city and state for ethical reasons. Most cities and states have some form of safety net, including yours. I admit that it's an uphill battle when you don't have insurance, however, usually some arrangement can be made, assuming that he's a resident of the U.S. I would urge you to explore as many options as you can; have you/he meet with a social worker; with the free care people at the hospital; with resource specialists. Is there an alternate hospital in your area. You live in a progressive state. Can the local AIDS organizations point you in the right direction. It may take some digging around to find the resources. Sometimes you can call the company directly or their rep. I recently got a patient free therapy even though he had no insurance by writing a bunch of letters to the company and speaking to their representative. Good luck.