re: How Do We Fix American Healthcare?

quote:

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or it's 1/10th of that in Canada and less in Mexico. Same drug. Same manufacturer. In some cases, same packaging. But a ten-fold price difference. US insulin prices have skyrocketed over the past few years.

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I started this post thinking that tenfold was an exaggeration, so I decided to check out pricing online to see what came up:


Of the most popular basal insulins:

Basaglar: CA: $153/5 pens. In US $250/5 pens

Lantus:
$153 in CA (5 pens) while $286 for the same 5 pens here

Levemir:
$210 vs $462

Tresiba:
$158 vs $608

Toujeo:
$200 vs $308

All above prices are in USD. I've admittedly not looked deep into other particular suppliers but prices seem to be somewhat similar at a few other sites.

It looks like the US is, at face value, more expensive. From somewhere between 40-400%

If you look here, though, you'll see that Sanofi will accept $99/m for a monthly supply of your insulin up to 10 vials/pens per month, which would be cheaper than even the Canadian price advertised for Lantus.


This is all information readily accessible online, but it is far from intuitive. Doctors of write a prescription, and if the patient doesn't complain about the cost, they move on. If patients ask, it is often fairly easy to find a workaround that works for all involved. Being a smart consumer and talking about prices with your physician goes a long way if it interests you or the prices are out of your comfort zone. There are times that nothing can be done, but more often than not there's a workable solution.


And if you want just a good place to start, GoodRx + manufacturer's websites are the best two places to go to look for coupons.