The human cost of insulin in America

[Matt Cycle]

This is the list of what Laura Marston has sacrificed to keep herself alive: Her car, her furniture, her apartment, her retirement fund, her dog.

At 36 years old, she has already sold all of her possessions twice to afford the insulin her body needs every day.

Insulin is not like other drugs. It's a natural hormone that controls our blood sugar levels - too high causes vision loss, confusion, nausea, and eventually, organ failure; too low leads to heart irregularities, mood swings, seizures, loss of consciousness.

For most of us, our bodies produce insulin naturally. But for Type 1 (T1) diabetics like Ms Marston, insulin comes in clear glass vials, handed over the pharmacy counter each month - if they can afford it.

One vial of the insulin Ms Marston uses now costs $275 (£210) without health insurance.

In 1923, the inventors of insulin sold its patent for $1, hoping the low price would keep the essential treatment available to everyone who needed it.

Now, retail prices in the US are around the $300 range for all insulins from the three major brands that control the market.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47491964

 

[nonethewiser]

Shocking, Humalog $38 in Canada yet in America its as much as $329, someone is taking the p###.

Ordered six vials of insulin yesterday, suppose we don't know how fortunate we are living here in the UK.

 

[Lanny]

It’s horrendous!😱😡 America is the worst place in the world to live in if you have diabetes! But, there are other places in the world that aren’t much better.

My late mum was a type 2 diabetic in Hong Kong for the last 15 or so years of her life. On diet control only for about 10, then tablets for 2 or 3 & then on insulin the last 18 months. Then, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 01/06/15 that had already spread to her other organs & passed on 15/07/15.

Health care in Hong Kong is currently stuck in a backwards out of date rut because of the 1997 handover back to China & the 50 year SAR (Special Admistrative Region) status of things not changing. It’s a HUGE contrast between the rich & the average person & none more so than in healthcare!😡 The cost of anything to do with diabetes, meds, insulin, needles & test strips is exorbitant! My mum could only afford to buy one 100unit cartridge of insulin, one box of needles & one tub of test strips at a time.When I went over, with the rest of my siblings in the UK, to see her before passing she literally had bugged out eyes seeing the 5 boxes each of Levemir & Novorapid 300 unit flexpens, the boxes of needles, & boxes of test strips I’d brought with me!😱🙄 I carried nothing else but my diabetes stuff in my hand luggage for 3 months: the prognosis given by doctors!

We REALLY are VERY fortunate indeed to have the NHS here in the UK!🙄🙂 It was a major shock to the system to see the standard of healthcare, outside the UK, that could be afforded by the average person in Hong Kong!😱😡 Even government hospitals cost money, running costs only, & each night in, the meds, scans, ops, EVERYTHING costs, again no profits, all add up!

Admittedly, I have no experience of healthcare in the US & only know what I’ve seen on TV, ER & the like, but, it seems to me the question of healthcare insurance is asked first before treatment!😱 And it seems that THAT insurance is provided by employers as part of a person’s salary. I could see how a futuristic world as depicted in the film Gattica COULD become the future when employers won’t employ diabetics, & other medical conditions, so, avoiding that cost of providing health insurance!😱🙄

 

[Abi]

Criminal
So sad that she had to give her dog away.
I'm glad the article mentioned the perils of having to switch to a different insulin- and that the older cheaper insulins are less effective
The graph of costs in different countries was interesting. I thought the UK negotiated the cheapest prices bit it appears that we are beaten by Italy

 

[mikeyB]

It’s cartel pricing in the US. The drug companies don’t make a loss on Canadian, Italian or UK pricing, negotiated by the NHS, they just make a lower profit for their shareholders.

The problem in the US is that there isn’t a single powerful agency that can negotiate down the profiteers, and it’s the poor who suffer.

It’s the same in England, with prescriptions more expensive from April, poor people can’t afford to be ill.

 

[Lucy Honeychurch]

The Michael Moore film Sicko is worth a watch, comparing USA to other health care systems.

 

[VICTOR HILL]

last time i purchased a vial of insulin cost about £19-00
wo would have to take out medical insurance
as i have said before we should KNOW the approx cost of all our meds would be MIND BLOWING

VIC insulin supporting life

 

[Sally71]

I don't know how people who work at these big pharmaceutical companies can sleep at night. Yes, like any other company they want to make as much profit as they can on their products, but when that product is life-saving medication and there are people in the modern world who are dying because they can't afford it, or having to sell all their worldly goods just to stay alive, I really don't know what the world is coming to. Especially when they aren't making a loss in the countries that charge a tenth of the price. It shouldn't need big organisations like the NHS to beat them down to affordable prices!

 

[Abi]

----are dying because they can't afford it---

Or having to use old products which make control harder and increase risk of future complications and hypos, especially if working conditions do not permit snacking--- which could lead to problems with employment

Some of the people on US forums are quite unsympathetic to the plights of others "well they can use regular , NPH" " these are not dangerous, you just need to eat on a schedule"..
I'm sorry but to my mind if a product causes a hypo because you omit to eat at exactly the right time then it is dangerous. Not everyone's job or other committments fit well with regular meal,snack, meal snack etc. And just because it was all people had in the 1980s does not mean people should have to use it now. There would be an outcry if other medical advances since the 1980s were made less accessable

 

[mikeyB]

Just about every drug that’s popular on the forum - be it a statin, antihypertensive, insulin or diabetes tablets - cost considerably more in the US. In the case of statins, up to five times as much. The bottom line cost of having your appendix out is around $10,000, but could be more. A routine Caesarian upwards of $30,000.

There are lots of reasons for this, not the least of which is that doctors in the US are the best paid in the world and they make their money from private health insurance. So do the hospitals, which by and large are private enterprises. But all are fragmented. There is no single authority to drive down drug prices, or general hospital costs, particularly administrative costs.

It’s grossly inefficient, but only a minority of folk in the US think it’s wrong, and many think that the NHS is a communist idea. That will never change, so it’s fairly pointless getting het up about it.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

I'm glad the article mentioned the perils of having to switch to a different insulin- and that the older cheaper insulins are less effective

I have read articles to say they are just as effective. I managed very well for 52 years on older insulin with no complications. So yes you have to be a bit more organised and think ahead a bit more but you can lead a normal active life.

 

[mikeyB]

Yup. My mum as well. (That’s not a comment on your age, Sue, honest). She never did like the newer insulins, couldn’t get used to them.