8 ms·
In 2001, Acthar sold for about $40 a vial. Today: more than $40,000. An increase of 100,000 percent. "Medicare is not allowed to negotiate the price of drugs be
by flowerlad 6y ago
In 2001, Acthar sold for about $40 a vial. Today: more than $40,000. An increase of 100,000 percent.
"Medicare is not allowed to negotiate the price of drugs because of a law passed by Congress." [1]
26-year-old recently removed from his parent’s insurance plan, was found dead in his home because he couldn't afford $1,300 per month for insulin. [2]
This is basically white-collar looting. It is sad that this allowed to happen in USA.
[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-problem-with-prescription-drug-prices/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-problem-with-prescription-d...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/well/diabetes-patients-at-risk-from-rising-insulin-prices.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/well/diabetes-patients-at...
- offtop5 6y agoAt a point wouldn't it be cheaper to hop on a flight to London , and check yourself into a hospital ? I know if I wasn't upper middle class I'd likely be skipping medicine right now. NHS style healthcare should be a human right
- paxys 6y agoIt is, and tons of people do it. Although they go to Mexico/India/SE Asia. There are entire medical tourism packages offered by hospitals in these countries - including airfare, surgeries/consultations, drugs, hospital stays, recovery at fancy resorts - all still working out to a fraction of the cost of treatment in the US.
- thayne 6y agoYep. But what do you do if you can't afford to do that? And even if you can, if you have a chronic condition, you would need to find a job in London (or whereever else you go).
- offtop5 6y agoI'm being a bit tongue in cheek , you can get round trip flights to London for 400$ or so. No one should die due to an inability to pay. Even if you have a great job , you can still lose it
- adwww 6y ago> Even if you have a great job , you can still lose it Especially likely if you're distracted or impaired by an illness - even if not yet diagnosed.
- Reason077 6y ago> "At a point wouldn't it be cheaper to hop on a flight to London , and check yourself into a hospital ?" The NHS doesn't offer free non-emergency healthcare to non-UK residents. In general, you would have to prove that you are a legal UK resident before you'd be admitted. Obviously, in an emergency they would treat you no matter what (but potentially send you a bill afterwards).
- DanBC 6y agoYou're right about hospital care, but if you need insulin you'd get it from a GP, not a hospital. Just about anyone can register for primary care. There isn't an "ordinarily resident" test for primary care. P142 of this: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/primary-medical-care-policy-and-guidance-manual-pgm/ https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/primary-medical-care-... Ordinarily resident applies to secondary care, but not including detention in a mental health hospital under the mental health act and not including A&E treatment in the A&E unit. ---begin quote--- 8.4 Who can register for free primary care services? 8.4.1 A patient does not need to be “ordinarily resident” in the country to be eligible for NHS primary medical care – this only applies to secondary (hospital) care. In effect, therefore, anybody in England may register and consult with a GP without charge. 8.4.7 It is important to note that there is no set length of time that a patient must reside in the country in order to become eligible to receive NHS primary medical care services. 8.4.8 Therefore, all asylum seekers and refugees, students, people on work visas and those who are homeless, overseas visitors, whether lawfully in the UK or not, are eligible to register with a GP practice even if those visitors are not eligible for secondary care (hospital care) services.
- flowerlad 6y agoIt's called medical tourism. If you don't have (and in some cases even if you have insurance) you can any necessary surgery done in Singapore: https://www.health-tourism.com/medical-tourism-singapore/ https://www.health-tourism.com/medical-tourism-singapore/
- blackoil 6y agoIn India it is a big industry 'medical tourism'. You'll get a 5-star hospital with a trip to Taj Mahal bundled for free.
- hansthehorse 6y agoThere is a Costa Rica Dental Group that advertises on a sports talk radio show here in Florida. They talk about their vacation / dental package.
- HarryHirsch 6y agoYou wonder what the coronaplague did to all the dentists in San Luis across the border from Yuma.
- jankotek 6y agoSome brits travel to France for surgeries :) An EU Greece is probably best option.
- csunbird 6y agoYou are obliged to have healthcare before visiting EU.
- alibarber 6y agoI’m afraid it doesn’t really work like that - even as a British Citizen you’d still need to be resident here. And if not, then becoming a resident would require a visa first - then yes you could get NHS care, but it would not be a timely procedure.
- Scoundreller 6y ago> At a point wouldn't it be cheaper to hop on a flight to London , and check yourself into a hospital ? Or walk into any Canadian pharmacy (if you can get into the country). Insulin doesn’t require a prescription here. Dunno why almost everything else does though.
- thisisnico 6y agoThis shouldn't be allowed to happen. These people need this to live and your extorting as much as inhumanely possible from them. As a Canadian this disgusts me, I hope that there is change to allow people to get medication they need.
- nickff 6y agoThe problem is not that one company attempts to raise its prices, the problem is that it is very difficult for competitors to undercut them. The FDA has made it very expensive to introduce and support products in the US pharmaceutical market; it has imposed huge compliance costs, and helped drug companies sustain those costs through exclusivity arrangements. Moralizing about health issues feels good, but these issues are created by simple economics (market and regulatory issues), not ethical deficiencies.
- a_humean 6y agoOr you could do what literately every other country in the world does, and have price controls.
- tastygreenapple 6y agoThere's a huge hidden cost to price controls through - they don't promote innovation as much as markets do. The US develops over half the world's new pharmaceuticals, if we imposed price controls today, we would have fewer life saving medications tomorrow because the companies couldn't afford to do as much R&D.
- watwut 6y agoI think that there are Americans who don't feel like volunteering to pay money they don't have food drugs they need for that.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- gmadsen 6y agowell considering we already subsidize the early R&D for these companies with our University system, and insulin hasn't changed in 50 years, I see no reason we can't price control certain drugs. Could even use this as a guide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHO_Model_List_of_Essential_Medicines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHO_Model_List_of_Essential_Me...
- sushicat 6y agoI live in CA and have type 2 diabetes, and I need to inject insulin once per day; on average, I use 1 insulin pen per month. The cost of 5 pens box at local pharmacy is about $33. The price used to be $40+ per box two years ago and recently dropped. So the insulin cost for me is about $7 per month. I usually only care about the “real” price, which is the price I actually paid, rather than the prices from an article. Maybe there’s difference between a type 1 patient, but this is my personal experience.
- bosswipe 6y agoSounds like you have good insurance so the real price is hidden from you.
- sparrish 6y agoNot the grandfather poster but those costs are about what I pay for my insulin without any insurance.
- KMnO4 6y agoYour costs would be much higher with Type 1: somewhere between 10-30mL (3-10x 3mL pens) is more typical. This is actually addressed in the article though: > The study used manufacturer prices for the analysis. The final, net prices paid for insulins are likely to be significantly lower than manufacturer prices in the U.S. because rebates and other discounts often drive down the price paid by individuals in the U.S.
- RHSeeger 6y agoIs there any discussion as to why he didn't just switch to a cheaper (older) insulin? Last time I checked, it was still possible to get the older (R/N/L) insulins at around $25/bottle, over the counter.
- 1123581321 6y agoPatients refuse to switch for a variety of reasons: fear that a different insulin will harm them, mental illness, discomfort with disturbing their insurance arrangement. You will hear diabetics (I am one, too) say that only a particular insulin works for them, even if that means they end up using no insulin at all, and/or haven’t seriously tried the cheap options. Patient education is a necessary step to decreasing prices and encouraging innovative medications at the same time. As is decreasing the inevitable fury at diabetics like myself who dare to look inward.
- bufferoverflow 6y agoHow is that a good answer? Certain death will scare you much more than some discomfort or insurance arrangement. Cheap insulin works fine. This is a classic case when some ridiculous example, where it's clearly patient's fault, is presented as the fault of the system.
- entitydc 6y agoCheap insulin works. For long-term outcomes, I'd certainly argue that it doesn't work "fine." But it's definitely better than death.
- RHSeeger 6y agoOutside of mental illness, I cannot fathom choosing death over trying a different type of insulin. I may be biased, because I've used so many different types over my life.
- entitydc 6y agoI think the "outside of mental illness" is a pretty important qualifier here. I've never hit the point personally where I'd prefer death to diabetes, but I've certainly been close, and were it not for a pretty fortunate life - good insurance, ability to afford a good doctor who is knowledgable in this field, ability to afford a CGM and never have to worry about paying for testing strips (another ridiculous expense - frankly far worse than insulin given how much larger of a population it impacts) - I could certainly see myself in their shoes.
- StreamBright 6y agoSupported by both parties for decades. The US healthcare is between social and full private in a deep hole of despair and the funniest to me is that people trying to blame it on the other party they support. There are good examples for successful healthcare models in Asia or in Europe, they just need to pick one and go with it.
- maxerickson 6y agoMedicare doesn't pay for drugs. It pays premiums for private insurance that pays for drugs. The law says that the private insurance negotiates the prices rather than the government. So the implication, that drug prices are not negotiated, is incorrect. Here's an article about children and babies paying lots for Acthar too: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/29/health/acthar-mallinckrodt-questcor-price-hike-trevor-foltz/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/29/health/acthar-mallinckrodt-qu... They aren't on Medicare! Of course, the conclusion that the entire insurance system is broken is just as bad or worse.
- bufferoverflow 6y agoI don't know why this propaganda is so highly upvoted. Monthly insulin doesn't cost $1,300. Nowhere near that. Maybe if you select the highest priced option on the market. But what stops you from buying a reasonably priced option?
- jstummbillig 6y agoCan you shed some light on the truth then? Why don't you provide specific numbers if you argue specific numbers?
- bufferoverflow 6y agoDepending on how many units/day you need. There's a great website for finding low priced insulin: https://www.goodrx.com/humalog https://www.goodrx.com/humalog $68.38 for five 3ml cartridges of 100 units/ml. So if you need 100 units/day (that's on the high end), that's two weeks worth.
- entitydc 6y agoYou only covered the bolus requirements. You also need a basal insulin for Type-1 diabetes (unless you're on an insulin pump, which is an entirely different class of expense), so something like Tresiba ($505) (https://www.goodrx.com/tresiba https://www.goodrx.com/tresiba) or Lantus ($357). Still not $1300/mo, but your price is also using temporary rebates and coupons, which certainly aren't always available.
- bufferoverflow 6y agohttps://www.goodrx.com/basaglar https://www.goodrx.com/basaglar $250 for five 3ml at 100 units/ml (1500 units total). https://www.goodrx.com/toujeo https://www.goodrx.com/toujeo $324 for three 1.5mL at 300 units/ml (1350 units total). https://www.goodrx.com/lantus https://www.goodrx.com/lantus $357 for five 3ml at 100 units/ml (1500 units total).
- lumost 6y ago
- notyourwork 6y agoI thought the current administration was going to fix this problem once and for all. 3.9 years in and we’re no better than that other guy. I encourage you to vote and make sure your voice is heard!