I am a Veteran, so I am covered. My Mom is in the Medicare hole they call it. She pays $90 a vial of Lantus or Novolog. I found test strips online for $28 for 50.(Accu-Chek Aviva)
Sounds like it is more expensive in the States then. Because like I said a box of 5 vials was only $45.
When I lived in Guatemala my insurance didnāt cover me, so I bought insulin full price.They sold insulin pens singly and I paid about $13-17 each, so that would come to $65 to $85 for five.
Thatās about the same price as in Hungary.
Here in Calgary Canada . Lantus a slow acting insulin is $60.00 per vial of 1000 units or 10 ml. Levemir is 1500 units for $130.00. And novorapid is $60.00 per 1500 units i.e. 5 cartridges of 300 units each. Test strips are 65 cents each and syringes about 25 cents each.
We thankfully only pay $35. a year for full coverage of our prescription drugs through my Hubbyās work group Insurance. I didnāt ask about the pens/Insulin since I returned to the syringes. Without Insurance, the 10ml. vial of Lantus here is $65.99 and the vial of Humalog is $30.50.
My insurance charges me $25 each for the 5-pack of Lantus and of Apidra (5 months worth for me). My test strips are $25 for 3 months and my doctor now writes for 900 for that period. I worked for a County in California for 5 years which gave me medical insurance for the rest of my life when I retired. It was the best five year plan I ever did (and I didnāt know I would be diagnosed with diabetes just a month before I retired). Itās probably the only time in my life Iāve planned ahead like that and made up for the previous 50 years of living in the now only!
Wow, Zoe. What fabulous insurance & after only 5 years of employment!
Without insurance & using three different insulins, Iād be paying about $350 a month. Strips without insurance are about $1 each, so that would be another $300 monthly. Syringes I pay out of pocket because it was cheaper to order them on-line than with a co-pay at CVS. Still stumped about that! Adding in thyroid meds & doctor bills & no insurance, Iād be eating cat food & out on the street. My insurance is crappy, co-pays are crazy high & the premiums went up, but Iām grateful to have it.
I want to move to New Zealand!
In Hungary, with the national insurance, insulin costs $1 per month and test strips about $2. So you can come here too Gerri!!! 
Iād love that! I visited Budapest 7 years ago. Wonderful. Didnāt have diabetes then & stuffed my face with amazing desserts. All the food was fabulous. From there, we went to Prague where I continued on my quest for the most decadent sweets possible. Prague is magical. We traveled in late fall/early winter for cheap rates. The weather wasnāt pretty, but who cares?
I canāt even imagine paying $1 for insulin & $2 for strips. When I do our taxes, itās shock adding up my medical expenses.
Hi, here in the UK any diabetic on medication for their diabetes receives all their medication (whether diabetes-related or not) free. As Iām currently not working, this means an awful lot to me, although of course I have spent the last 30 years paying taxes. I think the costs to the National Health Service are about Ā£30 for 5 penfills of novorapid, probably about the same for lantus. Test strips cost the health service abut Ā£15 for 50, but they are about Ā£25 bought privately. I was shocked to read of how much is charged in the US - it is as essential as water to us, and shouldnāt be allocated at a profit, except for a small margin for research. To me it is immoral to price products so high simply because you have a captive market - I would love to know the actual profit margin.
5 lantus pens are 269 and 5 humalog pens are 239 at Walgreens. Iām lucky I only pay the 5 dollar copay. Test strips are over 100 for a box of 100.
Hey Brett, I know what you mean. I was ādownsizedā and thrown into that lotā¦it was really hard. What was the worst was when Cobra ran out and I could not get insuranceā¦I had to go back to school to get in a large enough pool to qualify. Unfortunately, that insurance puts me in the group of āunderinsuredāā¦bad news when you require lots of meds, stuff. I pay 20% of everythingā¦adds up at the high prices of meds and durables. I also have a cap of only $1200 in meds per year and $1000 for durable equipment (read pump supplies!). Soā¦I switched to the cheapest, effective meds for BP, etc. and use the amount for important stuff that I cannot get cheaper. I get my pump supplies elsewhere and qualified for patient assistance to get my insulin and test strips when I had no insurance. Now mind youā¦I should be employed! One of the best employees at the hospital where I workedā¦so, none of it makes sense. Somehow the system needs to make supplies available for reasonable costsā¦over $100/vial is NOT reasonable.
Sounds like the prices have risen everywhere! I thought I was imagining a about $20/vial for fast acting human insulinā¦until I came across the figures in a book recently. It listed 2000 prices at about thatā¦and we are not talking about Regular from WalMartā¦this was for Novolog and Humulog.
Elizabeth, I used Patient Assistance for both my insulin and test strips. I use Novolog (NovoNordisk) and Abbott test strips. Took a whileā¦but, they approved me for a full year of free supplies. It requires filling out paperwork and supplying income information that then has to be approved by your doctor and sent in from their office. Whole thing took about 3 months to get straightā¦should have only take about 2 weeks and then about 2 weeks to get your first shipment. The insulin ships to my doctorās office (another place that things can get skrewed upā¦lost). Make sure the doctor writes the script for both very clearlyā¦need to know amounts/d and how it is dispensedā¦just saying 40units/d did not work. Againā¦great program to help you get over the hump, meaning until you find insurance and a new job. I hope you have found help and/or a new job since Julyā¦, but if notā¦know these programs are very helpful. Take care.
Iām a newbie T1; if the disease doesnāt kill me, then the medication and supply sticker shock might.
What I havenāt figured out is a monumental price difference depending on dispensing source: a box of NovoLog 5s costs $50 at the Kroger pharmacy but $18.75 through Medco mail order; Lantus is $30 through Walgreens but $125 Medco; needles are $30 at Kroger but $35 Medco; strips are $52 per 100 retail but $8 Medco; metformin 1000s are $4 at Kroger but $8 mail order. I could understand if I had no insurance ā but it should be illegal for Medco to charge 400 percent more for the same product available at a neighborhood pharmacy.
Interesting, too, that no generic insulin is available in the US. Anyone out there who can address this topic?
I buy into manitoba blue cross and once my deductible is reached i switch over to pharmacareā¦ it costs me 40 dollars a month for blue cross and that comes with dental and vision aswell. Otherwise itās 80ish bucks for lantus and 70 for novorapid. I couldnāt imagine not being covered.
Yesā¦EVā¦we have to be savvy medical bargain hunters! I used to buy test strips on ebay! and got some other durables there alsoā¦but, not available anymoreā¦need to check on Craigās List and other places. I could swing a car payments worth of meds, etc. per month for the rest of my lifeā¦but, not thousands! I think the pricing is way out of line. I hate to add up my costs over 30 years of treatment! It was at least a house. This has resulted in a lot of different life choices. We do the best we can and hope for changes in how health care is delivered here in the US.
I wish we (here in the US) had some of these options. Good wishes to you Billy:) and stay well.