Hi Sam, where do you live, what Walmart is $25 a vial for R and N? I called nearest Walmart pharm to me, Eden Prairie, MN, it costs $97.88 for each vial R and N. Also, I wouldn't know how to switch from Humalog or Novalog via insulin pump back to R and NPH via syringe.
Hi Patricia,
I very much appreciate what you are saying. When I first found out I was diabetic I had private health insurance because I was between jobs and they did not cover my supplies. I used the pens and it was about $210 for 5 pens of insulin. But the most expensive thing was the test strips. they were about $200 for 200 strips. So almost a dollar a strip. I later found a "Kroger" brand from smiths that I think brought it down to about $50 dollars for 200 strips. But I can't remember exactly. I do remember that it was VERY expensive though. Someone out there is making some good money :) Hopefully there will be a cure not far down the road.
Wow, I use Apidra as well, and it was a lot more for me. Thats interesting :)
Just got back on Tu to check out experiences of those using Symlin and was reminded of all my old posts. I am doing great Turtle_Dove and appreciative for the coverage provided by the Affordable Care Act. I have been able to start a consulting business AND have insurance. My HgA1c is great w/ the help of CGMS and pumpingā¦in the 6.0ās. I have gained weight though and continue to curse postprandial BGs, even on low CHO and that is why I am looking at Symlin or other options proposed by my new endo. I hope you are doing well - extending that wish to all of you on this thread!
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Welcome back, and glad to hear youāre doing so well!
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Thank you, DrBB 
Tu provides a level of support I have never found elsewhere. When I get down and donāt feel wellā¦I drop off. Glad to be back and working on putting my self-care first. Be well, always.
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STicker shock for insulin w/ Cigna last year (1,200) and United this year (789). Once I hit the deductible - after buying 1 month of insulin - all good ($5 copay).
for Novolog, it will be $ 150 for one vial for me,.
Diabetes is so expensive to manage, and trying to do it without insurance is difficult. If you have no insurance, contact the pharmaceutical companies for medication assistance - itās worth a try. In our area (Dallas), Novo 70/30 is available at Walmart for less than $40/vial. I donāt know why ājust Walmartā, nor do I know how long it will last. The analogs are so expensive without insurance. If you are cash pay or private insurance, you can go online to pharmaceutical company sites and download product coupons for Levemir/Apidra and some of the other diabetes meds. If you are on Medicare or Medicaid, these coupons cannot be used. I work with diabetic patients, so your conversations are so important to me. Let me know if my information is incorrect; I want to know.
This topic keeps running and running!
We donāt have to pay for insulin in the UK (itās free) but to find out how much it is costing the Health Service, I just Googled online British National Formulary. Some small variations between different analogs and between pens and 10 ml vials. FYI currently Ā£1 = US$1.45, but prices currently a fraction of the US
Novorapid Ā£14.08 (10 ml vial); Ā£32.15 (5 x 3 ml pens/cart)
Humalog Ā£16.61 (vial); Ā£29 (cart/pens)
Lantus Ā£41.50 (5 x 3 ml cart/pens)
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According to goodrx.com, the cash price without insurance for a box of Novolog pens in my area ranges from $366 (Walgreens membership) to $479. Vials are $190 (Walgreens) to $250.
My current insurance is paying $227/vial, so they arenāt negotiating the price down much at all.
The Europeans and Canadians donāt seem to see that when the citizen buys things cheaply, their state bureaucracy is paying full cost. Nothing is free. Their enormous taxes pay for it all. Ca-ching ! The citizens pay for it by paying their taxes.
We are going birding in Ireland this summer. On trips like this, I usually just take my own from home. Aetna.
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Actually, my understanding is that the US customers pay for it.
The other countries negotiate lower prices with the drug companies. They in turn know they can make up the difference by āsticking itā to the US citizens because we think doing what Canada & the Europeans et alia do is morally reprehensible. The thousands of large drug corporations need to be unrestricted in their US pricing so that Adam Smithās invisible hand can guide them to eventually lower the cost of our medications.
Iām sure it will happen any day now. You just have to wait for it ā¦ 
Iām so looking forward to reaping the benefits of their investment.
āJohn Lechleiter, chief executive officer, said higher prices make sense because it helps the company fund the research needed to find better treatment methods or a cure.ā
Pharmacist in Memphis said one box of five Humalogue 100 unit pens is $596.99 without insurance
True but, national health programs like those in Canadaā¦and Medicare here in U.S. negotiate prices for care and meds. The health plans get the medications and durable equipment for those costs. It makes sense - large buying group, more bargaining capabilities. There is NO way it costs a company to produce insulin for the prices we are discussing. I imagine it is about what you are seeing in Ireland, Canada, etc. We are, and have been, the only ones paying that price - we, meaning, those w/ private insurance. It does not make sense that a medication (say, Novolog) that has been around since the '80ās and made using recombinant DNA should increase in price and be the prices we are talking about. They have the technology (meaning, we are not paying for research), the people, the labsā¦all in place.
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Who is he? Elli Lilly and insulin companies are not the ones finding the cure. If anything, we should be saving money on these old medications and donating to Faustmanās lab - she is finding a cureā¦and it will be a generic TB drug given in 2-4 injections @ a cost of about $30 (may have changed, so donāt hold me to this numberā¦it is low).
Demand requires large numbers of consumers. Unfortunately, there are diseases like T1 where we are a small number in the market. What do you do then?
Just followed link and see it is the CEO of Elli Lilly. Wonder what he will think when T1 is curedā¦ The issue is that insulin, to a T1, is life"saving" - - to withhold it, in essence, via market forces is unethical and unnecessary. They are recouping profits at a reasonably set price - the current prices do not reflect production costs + even 10% (which is a high profit margin). It will take setting caps on what they can charge OR large buying groups will have to negotiate prices. Seeing that already happen w/ local pharmacy - which is why my ace inhibitor looks different almost every month 
If we had the buying power of one large provider (Medicare-like) we would see the prices that other people w/ diabetes pay in other countries.
ā¦and I remember reading that the recombinant dna insulins (Novolog, Humulog) are losing their patents in the next few years. That is why the costs are skyrocketing. That and they can charge whatever the market will bear - and we do not have a choice to stop using insulin. They will likely not make insulin after generics are available.