The rising cost of insulins has been well documented in the US where there are more than 30 million Americans with diabetes, a disease that costs the U.S. more than $327 billion per year. For people living with diabetes, including all individuals with Type 1 diabetes, access to insulin is literally a matter of life and death.
(The average list price of insulin has skyrocketed in recent years, nearly tripling between 2002 and 201.)
The reasons for the increased costs are due in part to the complexity of drug pricing in general and of insulin pricing in particular. As the price of insulin continues to rise, individuals with diabetes are often forced to choose between purchasing their medications or paying for other necessities, exposing them to serious short- and long-term health consequences.
It is not the USA alone that is affected, although the plight of certain groups within the US has been well documented with Black, Hispanic and Asian adults much more likely to have diabetes than white adults – and they’re less likely to be insured.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/datablog/2019/jul/14/diabetes-insulin-mona-chalabi-data-blog
In the UK the British Medical Journal reported last year a study that found the NHS was paying five times as much as it should for insulin. The research found that patients with type 1 diabetes should be able to buy insulin for less than $100 (£75) per year. However, the cost in the UK is $532 per person per year, and in the US $1,251. Although these costs are not met by patients they do fall on taxpayers.
Advocacy Action: Are patients and your health care system paying a fair price for insulin? Ask your health ministry how much insulin prices have risen over the past three years? Talk to your national diabetes patient organisation to see how working with them can raise this issue and put pressure on to reduce taxpayer and patient costs? Can you use the rising cost to increase pressure for more emphasis on prevention of Type 2 and early diagnosis of all forms of diabetes? In some States in the US campaigners have persuaded State politicians to back price caps on insulin, is that in your legislative power?