Who generally has the lowest cash price for insulin?
Saturday, August 28th, 2010 at
7:56 am
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all the manufacturers give it away to free if you meet the guidlines. It astonishes me the number of people who don’t know this. Each company sets their own guidelines. You go to the doctor’s office to see who handles the program. You fill out a one page form and submit proof of income such as last year’s tax return. I am not certain but believe that qualifying has nothing to do whatsoever with assets but only income. One company may say they’ll give it away if you’re income in under $26,000/yr whereas another may say their cut off is $24,500/yr. The turn around time is sometimes less than two – three weeks from initial contact to you holding the med. I think that is fast. Not every drug is in these programs. The big pharma companies have to have these programs for poor and low income as deals they’ve cut to get approvals. It’s time consuming to your doctor’s office who is not allowed to charge you and profit on it. So they don’t like to go out of the way to do it. Let us remember your doctor is a for profit business to make money (in US). Sometimes a county department of health does it for you and charges a nominal processing fee like $5. (That’s what I do.) The manufacturer sends it to the doctor and you go pick it up. For oral meds, on the other hand, they may mail it to your home. It’s so easy. You don’t even pay shipping. The cheapest insulins are not usually on these programs, I was told. The premium ones are covered along with many other expensive oral meds. Expensive insulins work nicely for most people. For instance, I live on social security now, and get Lantus for free from Sanovi-Avantis, ten bottles at a time that would be over $1000. That is a slow acting (basal), excellent primary choice, for most people better than NPH. Then you can add a small amount of a low cost over-the-counter fast acting insulin if that’s even needed (probably it is for most people). That’s a customary normal combo, not something unusual. I get the fast acting one at WalMart for $24 a bottle, made by their brand called Reli-On. No script is even needed for that in any US State.
You can easily check your minimal health care rates in internet, for example here – health-quotes.talk4fun.net
Have you tried Walmart pharmacy, they should be close to the same price as Sams club with no membership. I wouldn’t call the large pharmacy’s like CVS or Walgreens, but you might check with some local pharmacies. I had to buy insulin a while back (for a cat, but still human insulin) and a local pharmacy was only $2 more expensive than Walmart and a lot closer.