Why Is Insulin So Expensive In The U.S.?

[Northerner]

Dr. Jeremy Greene sees a lot of patients with diabetes that's out of control.

In fact, he says, sometimes their blood sugar is "so high that you can't even record the number on their glucometer."

Greene, a professor of medicine and history of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, started asking patients at his clinic in Baltimore why they had so much trouble keeping their blood sugar stable. He was shocked by their answer: the high cost of insulin.

Greene decided to call some local pharmacies, to ask about low-cost options. He was told no such options existed.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/03/19/393856788/why-is-u-s-insulin-so-expensive

Thank you, NHS 🙂

 

[HOBIE]

Hint Go to the supermarket over there & see the size of a bag of crisps (Chips). 4ft sandwiches never mind sweet things with triple maple -----

 

[grovesy]

Interesting article!

 

[Abi]

Not sure of the connection between size of bags of crisp and cost of insulin being prohibitive

 

[Copepod]

Just what I was thinking, Abi. If anything, higher rates of diabetes in USA should mean more demand, leading to lower prices of insulin, assisted by economies of scale of manufacture and transport. But then USA relies on relatively financially inefficient health insurance schemes, not a single NHS with its great buying power.