It may rule them out. But many standard-of-care chemo drugs are quite cheap. When I had leukemia, my first rounds of chemo used cheap drugs. (The drugs were fa

It may rule them out. But many standard-of-care chemo drugs are quite cheap. When I had leukemia, my first rounds of chemo used cheap drugs. (The drugs were far cheaper than the daily hospitalization costs, which was required due to drugs obliterating the immune system.) The insurance company didn't require any oversight into the process. But once the chemo stopped working and a much more expensive treatment was needed, the insurance company became quite a pest. I'm fortunate have saved a lot of money, so I didn't delay treatment until insurance approved it. (The 2-3 weeks between treatment starting and the final approval from insurance may have actually made a difference between life-and-death when dealing with aggressive leukemia.)