> How can people pay $1000/month for the rest of their life
No one actually pays that price. The $1000 misrepresented in the article as the "usual insurance price" is actually the list price, from which insurers negotiate discounts (that is, the full price -- not just the out of pocket price charged to the insured -- for insured patients is significantly less than that $1000 price), while most people who get the drug outside of insurance get it through some program (if it is the actual, brand-name drug, run by the manufacturer) that also charges much less than the list price.
No one actually pays that price. The $1000 misrepresented in the article as the "usual insurance price" is actually the list price, from which insurers negotiate discounts (that is, the full price -- not just the out of pocket price charged to the insured -- for insured patients is significantly less than that $1000 price), while most people who get the drug outside of insurance get it through some program (if it is the actual, brand-name drug, run by the manufacturer) that also charges much less than the list price.