This is my personal experience. We have always had medical insurance, but the numbers do not lie. It is hard to fathom that one day my son will have to take on this burden of providing himself with insulin just because his body can not produce it! Jay was 9 when he got this disease! 9! (He did not eat too much sugar, in fact he did nothing to bring this on himself.
Insulin in America cost over $300 dollar a vial. Jay just turned 13 years old and his insulin requirements are dramatically increasing. He is now up to almost 4 bottles a month. ($300 X 4 =$1200) out of pocket for insulin. Now this wouldn’t be a problem, you have insurance, you say. Right I do have insurance! Yes insurance covers my cost of insulin. I just pay my copay and get the insulin. (I also pay more than $1200 a month in the cost of having insurance.) Also what happens when you use more than prescribed in a month? Well insurance will tell you that you can’t get any. You have what you need. WHAT!? What if our bodies just said, “Hey I think you have reached your limit of insulin for the month.” “I am just going to stop making it until next month.” Crazy, huh?
We had a bottle of insulin bust in the middle of the month and I had to call and replace it, because Jay’s insulin needs do not change because a bottle broke. Since insurance says that I don’t need any insulin for the rest of the month… guess who gets to pay $300 dollars for a new vial of insulin? You guessed it me! That’s on top of my insurance premium and my out of pocket co-pays. And this is just insulin guys. This is not other supplies used to get the insulin in the body and supplies such as a continuous glucose monitor that has been proven to help manage type one diabetics very effectively.
Yes they do make different formulas of insulin and yes some will say, “you can buy insulin at Wal-Mart for $25.” This is true, but that insulin has a different formula. (An old formula) It doesn’t work the same. It is not ideal and if you use it you should consult with your endocrinologist closely.
Nobody should have to ration their insulin. Or sacrifice their health for a formula that isn’t close to the natural human insulin. The High Cost of Insulin in the United States: An Urgent Call to Action
This is just a glimpse into one hiccup we had with insulin during a month. Most months are not this way. We pay our co-pay and try to go about our lives as normal as possible. But the fight is real. There are some diabetics that are skipping doses and not eating to try and save this liquid gold. I don’t want that to be my son. As long as I live if he ever needs help financially to provide himself with insulin, you can bet I will do whatever is necessary to get it for him. It just shouldn’t be this way.
Here is a link to a Forbes article: Insulin’s Out-Of-Pocket Cost Burden To Diabetic Patients Continues To Rise Despite Reduced Net Costs To PBMs
God has heard 