Colorado caps insulin out of pocket costs to 100$ a month - Sensationalist Headlines

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/05/23/colorado-insulin-price-cap/ Diabetics in Colorado who use insulin to control their blood sugar levels won’t pay more than $100 per month for the drug starting in January thanks to a bill signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday. “Today, we will declare that the days of insulin price gouging are over in Colorado,” Polis said in his office as he signed the bill, according to CBS Denver. Insulin has been around for nearly a century, but the price that patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes pay for the drug has doubled since 2012, according to the Healthcare Cost Institute. The cost of insulin can creep up toward $1,000 for those whose health care coverage requires significant cost-sharing. The sudden spike in insulin prices lead to congressional inquiries and public outrage, but Colorado is the first state to implement a cap on what its residents can be charged for the medication. The law doesn’t limit what insulin manufacturers can charge insurance companies, and it’s expected those insurers will pay the difference. Rep. Dylan Roberts, D-Avon, told The Denver Post earlier this year that the projections he saw showed the price of health care plans increasing by “a couple of cents, per person, per month.”

$100 per month is still kind of ridiculous.

It barely costs more than $2 to make a vial of insulin. A cap is nice, but why is it $100? Are they future proofing for inflation in 220 years?

That's as far as the medical lobby will allow

Well, it's the best possible "comprise" with how the us health system is rigged. Plus, literally anyone can afford that even if they have a minimum wage job. So it's the smallest of all the evils.

Nah after the shit people went through fleeing to Canada, they should cap it at $15 per month federally.

I'm diabetic. The other day I was travelling and accidentally left a bottle of insulin in one city before needing it in another city. My insurance wouldn't cover an emergency refill because I had just refilled the prescription, and the pharmacy wouldn't accept a coupon to lower the cost because "generic humalog" is exclusive to Wal-Mart pharmacies only, I shit you not, which were closed at the time. They told me a single bottle of insulin would be $325 out of pocket and if I didn't like it, I could go to the emergency room. We took option C and cut our travelling plans short so we could drive across the entire state in one night to return home. I was violently ill before we even made it halfway.

People shouldn't have to pay for something they literally can't live without.

I've legimtately thought about if I ever had to go to the hospital to just give fake information to avoid crippling bills if something ever happened to me.

Still $100 too many.

That sounds like communism. You're not a dirty communist are you? /s

Why bother with this weak ass shit. $0/month

Even as a joke, this is getting real fucking old.

Drugs that you LITERALLY NEED TO SURVIVE should be free, playing "supply and demand" to profit off of THINGS YOU NEED OR YOU DIE is on the top of the Pryamid of Scumfuckery

"That's nice, little person, but your life is of trivial concern to us when there are actual premium-class citizens we have to take care of by keeping our stock prices high."

Ill stop making the joke as soon as the people in power in this country stop treating the idea of helping people who truly need it as communism.

every day i am more and more convinced that america is a joke

Entirely agree with your sentiment, mate. I just don't know how posting that joke in every thread like this is helpful

my sister has heriditary diabetes, can't fathom having to pay for something that is no fault of your own purely to keep yourself alive

The American Dream™

I hear horror stories about American health care and I hope you guys can get it sorted. I've had some personal health issues the last 9 months and the total I've paid is ~3000 SEK (or $315). That's for 11 days of hospitalization, ~40 visits to health care professionals and 9 months worth of medication. I can't imagine having to deal with a crushing financial burden on top of already dealing with all the other shit. High taxes? Health care allowing people to function, have a job and not die is arguably cheaper (for the society on a larger scale). You just can't see that (unless you're looking for it, of course), its personal meaning gets lost in the bureaucracy and GDPs. All you see is a higher percentage of your salary going "missing". Assuming your leaders doesn't spend all the money on the military or something, that is. I also want to note that money only makes people happy to an extent, it has upper ceiling. Anything above financial freedom and security simply won't make you happier. A good argument for redistributing the money just a little bit more evenly. Charts about money happiness

That would be approximately three billion dollars in US and only accepted with an official approval from the president and the first lady.

And then get mis-treated because something in your medical history didn't come up on account of the fake information. Good luck with that nasty complication...

As awful as it is it comes down to $3.33 a day or about $24 a week. It could very well be a lot worse.

Frankly it should be free and paid for by taxes along any medication required to live a healthy life.

Fuckin what was the estimate? Wasn't it like 50-60 dollars production costs for a YEAR'S WORTH OF FUCKING INSULIN? Honestly, what a fucking cesspit of a country.

Okay, here is a crazy idea. Invest in social welfare leading to the reduction of costs for things like in the OP. Now when people don't have to choose between paying for an education or being able to function people can do both and acquire marketable skills and also be alive. Truth be told I'm no economist and it's probably not this simple, but as a layman it seems to work here in Sweden.

'tis why I don't have a degree. I could either A: Not get a degree, not live with lifelong debt, and make just shy of a living wage, or B: Get that degree, make 80k/yr, and live closer to the poverty line than if I didn't because most of that goes back to repaying student loan debt. Fucking travesty.

I think I'd rather risk that than the guarantee of having my life ruined by debt that I'll never get out of without killing myself.

You'd rather risk the doctor giving you a drug you're fatally allergic to?