Posted on Mar 10, 2019
How Much Difference Will Eli Lilly's Half-Price Insulin Make?
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When Erin Gilmer filled her insulin prescription at a Denver-area Walgreens in January, she paid $8.50. U.S. taxpayers paid another $280.51.
She thinks the price of insulin is too high. "It eats at me to know that taxpayer money is being wasted," says Gilmer, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes while a sophomore at the University of Colorado in 2002.
The diagnosis meant that for the rest of her life she'd require daily insulin shots to stay alive. But the price of that insulin is skyrocketing.
Between 2009 and 2017 the wholesale price of a single vial of Humalog, the Eli Lilly and Company-manufactured insulin Gilmer uses, nearly tripled — rising from $92.70 to $274.70, according to data from IBM Watson Health.
Six years ago, Gilmer qualified for Social Security Disability Insurance — and thus, Medicare — because of a range of health issues. At the time, the insulin she needed cost $167.70 per vial, according to IBM Watson Health.
"When it's taxpayer money paying for medication for someone like me, it makes it a national issue, not just a diabetic issue," Gilmer says.
She thinks the price of insulin is too high. "It eats at me to know that taxpayer money is being wasted," says Gilmer, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes while a sophomore at the University of Colorado in 2002.
The diagnosis meant that for the rest of her life she'd require daily insulin shots to stay alive. But the price of that insulin is skyrocketing.
Between 2009 and 2017 the wholesale price of a single vial of Humalog, the Eli Lilly and Company-manufactured insulin Gilmer uses, nearly tripled — rising from $92.70 to $274.70, according to data from IBM Watson Health.
Six years ago, Gilmer qualified for Social Security Disability Insurance — and thus, Medicare — because of a range of health issues. At the time, the insulin she needed cost $167.70 per vial, according to IBM Watson Health.
"When it's taxpayer money paying for medication for someone like me, it makes it a national issue, not just a diabetic issue," Gilmer says.
How Much Difference Will Eli Lilly's Half-Price Insulin Make?
Posted from npr.org
Drugs
Pharmaceuticals
Medical
Health
Posted 6 y ago
Responses: 4
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While Pharmaceutical Companies want you to believe that the huge costs pay for future research, it's actually paying for lobbying
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Having a son who is Type-1, having gone through periods of no insurance, I can tell you almost to the penny how much it costs and how high it's skyrocketed over the last 13 years. What major corporations are doing, especially big pharma, annoys the hell out of me. No wonder so many on the Hill are millionaires after 6-12 years there.
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