US:Mum pleads for cheaper insulin as son dies after rationing expensive diabetes drug

[Jabberwocky]

ALEX Smith lived just 27 days after he aged out of his parents? health insurance cover.

The US man?s 26th birthday became a death sentence last year, as he could no longer afford to buy the insulin he needed to live and treat his diabetes, Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.

An autopsy determined he died from diabetic ketoacidosis caused by a critical shortage of insulin, which he reportedly tried to ration because of the exorbitant cost per month.

His mother, Nicole Smith-Holt, said his next payday was only days after his death.

?It?s not affordable. You?re price-gouging people who need this one product to live, to survive,? she said.

He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 23.

Smith?s insulin refills cost $US1300 ($A1770), something he couldn?t afford as a restaurant manager.

The most affordable health plan he could find had a deductible which still prevented him from affording his medication, so he went without, rationing his insulin each month.

She led a protest at the headquarters of Eli Lilly, a major insulin manufacturer, in St Paul, Minnesota, as well as a rally earlier this week at the Minnesota state capitol.

Between 2002 and 2013, the price of insulin per millilitre rose by 197 per cent, from $4.34 per millilitre to $12.92 per millilitre, according to a 2016 study.

Eli Lilly and Co told the Star-Tribune that even though the list price for the drug has gone up, the company is receiving less money from sales of the drug since 2009 because of rebates.

Unlike most countries, the US doesn?t limit what drug companies can charge for medicine.

President Donald Trump unveiled his plan on Friday to battle high prescription drug prices in the US, which includes speeding up the approval process for over-the-counter medications and a requirement for drug makers to disclose the cost of their products in TV ads.

The plan didn?t include his campaign promise to allow Medicare, the largest buyer of drugs, to negotiate with drug companies directly, the Associated Press reported.

However, in response to Smith?s death, a politician on the state level took action, naming a bill in his honour to provide emergency insulin for those in need.

The bill was referred to committee but will not get a vote in the current legislative session, the Star-Tribune said.

About 1.25 million Americans have type 1 diabetes, about 5 per cent of diabetics, the American Diabetes Association said. In Australia, around 130,000 have type 1 diabetes.

It is a lifelong auto-immune disease usually occurring in children and young adults.


Source: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/h...g/news-story/e49bf150bb336fdeecb0e903580ac528

 

[Captain.Heroin]

You’re not supposed to get the most affordable health care coverage if you have serious health needs (like expensive medications).

 

[Jabberwocky]

You’re not supposed to get the most affordable health care coverage if you have serious health needs (like expensive medications).

Sad but true

 

[S.J.B.]

This is one of those situations that seem to come up quite a bit in the U.S. where an old, generic drug that should be dirt cheap is beat out of the market by newer, patent-protected derivatives that may be somewhat superior but are probably not worth the increased price (if judging by list price, at least). There is nothing stopping someone from starting a company and selling dirt-cheap old-school animal-derived insulin, but because physicians are so susceptible to marketing and because of the difference in price between what patients pay and what insurers pay for patented drugs, pharmaceutical companies have decided that selling generic insulin is not a profitable venture. Maybe an NGO can take up the cause of actually making these drugs (it's 1920s technology, after all) and selling them directly to uninsured patients.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Sad but true

He could have just quit his job and move to California and lived in a tent, and medi-cal would have covered his meds I'm fairly sure.

It's why giving away health care and college education doesn't work. It penalizes people for working and earning enough to pay taxes and having to cover their own costs, but not enough to where it doesn't seriously bite.

 

[Jabberwocky]

He could have just quit his job and move to California and lived in a tent, and medi-cal would have covered his meds I'm fairly sure.

It's why giving away health care and college education doesn't work. It penalizes people for working and earning enough to pay taxes and having to cover their own costs, but not enough to where it doesn't seriously bite.

It is fair fucked. Australia has similar issues, if you are on welfare you get dental and psych for free. Others have to pay.

I remember reading a while ago about a guy in America robbing a store for a dollar just so he could go to jail to get an operation he needed done as he didn't have money for it and knew health care was free in jail.

Here is the article: https://www.rt.com/usa/oregon-man-bank-robbery-healthcare-126/

 

[neversickanymore]

He could have quit his job and gotten on gov health care. Some of these new HSA crap insurance policies are a bad joke. Health care in the states is a crisis issue and a huge failure. Insulin has been around for a long time and generic insulin in the US.. does it even exist?

Answer NO. ITS BS and With diabetes my self my health care cost constitute a third of my take home.

http://diabetes.emedtv.com/insulin/generic-insulin.html

 

[Jabberwocky]

I often hear people try to normalize addiction by comparing it to other chronic conditions, like diabetes. It’s interesting to find people are having trouble getting their meds/treatment to help manage something like diabetes, another similarity between substance use disorder meds/treatment...

Sounds like generics that would be otherwise very cheap are becoming less available for chronic conditions across the board?

Too bad no one informed this person’s family about COBRA coverage (or that they just couldn’t afford it, but it seems like know one I meet even is aware it exists).

Iirc COBRA coverage enables 2 years of temp coverage under the original plan after aging out at 26 (it also applies when someone looses coverage after becoming unemployed), with renewal options undefinitively. Have to pay for it of course, but it’s a much cheaper option than having to afford an entirely new policy.

Then again, if he could have gotten on something like Medicaid, which I imagine someone who can’t afford his insulin would qualify for, that would have probably been best until he got something better (and it wouldn’t have prevented COBRA coverage from applying).

This is one of those situations that seem to come up quite a bit in the U.S. where an old, generic drug that should be dirt cheap is beat out of the market by newer, patent-protected derivatives that may be somewhat superior but are probably not worth the increased price (if judging by list price, at least). There is nothing stopping someone from starting a company and selling dirt-cheap old-school animal-derived insulin, but because physicians are so susceptible to marketing and because of the difference in price between what patients pay and what insurers pay for patented drugs, pharmaceutical companies have decided that selling generic insulin is not a profitable venture. Maybe an NGO can take up the cause of actually making these drugs (it's 1920s technology, after all) and selling them directly to uninsured patients.

Just. Like. Naloxone.

 

[ro4eva]

No parent should have to bury a child.

No parent should have to bury a child because of a profit-based/driven healthcare system. Poopity scoop!

 

[cj]

He could have just quit his job and move to California and lived in a tent, and medi-cal would have covered his meds I'm fairly sure.

Yeah cuz that's an attractive option s/.

Make too much for Medicaid coverage but not enough to afford insurance is a real problem right now.