I am going to ask him to write an Rx for Lantus that says refill until cure for type one diabetes is found.
There is just something not right with needing permission from anyone to purchase the medicine I need to live . I vote to make all insulin over the counter.
I tried something like that years ago but was basically told that the maximum a prescription could be written for is 1 year, but hey go ahead and try. Good luck!
Just a warning…if insulin is made otc, then insurance won’t cover it. Just ran into that with my scrip for omeprazole. I was paying $2 for a 90 day supply, then it went up to $15, then my insurer stopped covering it altogether because it’s OTC. It will now cost me approx. $40 per month!
What insurance covers it cause mine doesn’t.
Tall to your doc, i ran into that and they upped my script to 40mg twice daily so it would be covered.
Its a valid request.
You can always get NPH over the counter at Walmart. Not as good, but I have used it when there were problems with the Rx.
I don’t think that’s the case for every medication. All insulins are OTC in Canada. Insurance still covers them as long as you have a prescription. I have also bought it OTC, mailed in the receipt and got reimbursed.
Interesting. Canada is so interesting.
Nope, it’s really boring. The United States is far more interesting!
If I have some problem with my Rx my next stop is the ER for a $1,200 shot of Lantus billed to insurance and a prescription that works.
I am not playing games like back when I was on Clonopin.
Same thing if they won’t sell me needles cause I “look like a druggy”, next time a pharmacy pulls that I go to the ER cause I need my medicine injected then sue the pharmacy for profiling me.
I am not taking crap from people anymore.
I have also gone to the ER for insulin. I dont think they would have given it to me, though. I brought my dad to stare at the Doc. That worked.
In my state, they have to give you a few syringes, even if you ARE a druggy. But, I know it differs state to state.
For controlled drugs (not insulin) the federal government sets the maximum length of the prescription.
For non-controlled prescription drugs (analog insulins), the time limit is I understood to be set by state government, and while 12 months is a common number, I believe some states allow 24 month prescriptions.
While the most common length of an insulin prescription where I live for the past 20 years has been 12 months, my current doctors office will only write insulin prescriptions for 6 months at a time and schedules my appointments 3 months apart.
I know I have to chill out but I resent having to ask anyone for permission to buy the medicine that keeps me alive.
What if they said no you can’t have it ? Obviously I would take it by force cause its my belief that death is a thing to avoid at all costs.
I just resent it taking money out of my pocket and paying someone for an insulin purchase permission slip. Feels like extortion.
How would the sugar normal’s who make these rules on us like it if we made them get an RX to be allowed to buy food ??
My copay for an ER visit is a lot higher than what I pay for many months worth of insulin. I could get about 6 months worth of insulin for one ER copay. Also, before I was diagnosed, an urgent care center sent me to the ER saying my blood sugar level was so high I was about to go into a coma. I went to the ER, one that is a highly regarded one in big city, and all they did was monitor me for most of the day, gave me an IV and monitored my heart, but said they do not treat high blood sugar so they gave me nothing to bring down my level. They sent me home at 2 am on a Saturday night with no instructions other than to get with a primary care doc, who I told them I did not have. They gave me no advice on how to eat or any advice whatsoever as to how to treat my high blood sugar. When I finally got into a doc, when she she saw my test results from the hospital, she said I was extremely close to being in DKA at the hospital, yet they didn’t give me insulin, never mentioned insulin and just sent me home. Had my husband not been one with type 2 who had an understanding of what not to eat in order to keep blood sugar levels down, I probably would have died before I could get into a doc, thanks to the ER at the major hospital here not treating high blood sugar levels and sending me home.
I think that it might be fair to say, “The hospital does not treat high blood sugar.” That seems the most honest summary of the situation. Its short and too the point. Thank you, @Stang777. Its surprisingly simple now that I hear you state it. Thats how it works, isn’t it? I feel that I have had a real moment of truth and deeper understanding for how the system works. Thanks.
I am keenly aware that when I have been able to obtain insulin from the ER, I was very fortunate.
You are welcome. I do not understand them not treating someone who has a blood sugar level of over 500 and is almost in DKA, especially not when the urgent care center called them and told them they had sent me over and why. But, if it gave you a better understanding then I am happy. 
It sounded strange when I read what you wrote. Its true, but to hear someone say it so simply! Yes! That’s what they do. Its nuts. They are out of their minds.
What classifies as DKA? At what number are they forced to provide treatment? There must be a number. I know that I was diagnosed at 800, but that was the limit for me. I was almost dead. I’m gonna post the question. Its a good one.
I don’t know the level, but my doc told me if the labs had shown the level of something they tested for was just 1 higher, I would have been classed as being in DKA. She was amazed they sent me home. I had been sick for about a month before I ended up at the urgent care center, lost about 15 pounds in three weeks regardless of eating more, I was having chest pains, shortness of breath, had a sick tummy and horrible taste in my mouth, and had just felt like crap for a while. It was the chest pains and shortness of breath that made me go in to urgent care. Turns out my blood sugar was high enough that it caused the right side of my heart to be enlarged and that was the cause of the shortness of breath and chest pains, as was the fact that I was so close to being in DKA. My blood sugar was at that level even though I had not eaten anything for about 12 hours, but yea, the ER doesn’t treat high blood sugar. They are lucky I lived, my husband would have sued them for everything they have if I hadn’t.
Thats a really horrible story. Makes my hair stand on end. It must not be a specific number, but a combination of symptoms indicating that death is imminent if they don’t act.