More Americans can now get insulin for $35 | CNN Politics
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More Americans with diabetes will get a break on their insulin costs in 2024.

More Americans with diabetes will get a break on their insulin costs in 2024.

Sanofi is joining the nation’s two other major insulin manufacturers in offering either price caps or savings programs that lower the cost of the drugs to $35 for many patients. The three drugmakers are also drastically lowering the list prices for their products.

The moves were announced in the spring, but some didn’t take effect until January 1.

Drugmakers have come under fire for years for steeply raising the price of insulin, which is relatively inexpensive to produce. The inflation-adjusted cost of the medication has increased 24% between 2017 and 2022, and spending on insulin has tripled in the past decade to $22.3 billion in 2022, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Some 8.4 million Americans rely on insulin to survive, and as many as 1 in 4 patients have been unable to afford their medicine, leading them to ration doses – sometimes with fatal ramifications, according to the association.

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pubEnglish
      14·
      11 months ago

      It does require time, effort and resources to manufacture, and on top of that there’s a regulatory system for quality checking so that nobody gets poisoned by a faulty batch, which is more time, effort and resources.

      Some cost is reasonable. Price gouging is unreasonable and greedy. Free is also unreasonable and would create a risk of low production quality.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
        16·
        11 months ago

        🙄

        The time, effort, and resources could be handled by a public industry that produces a public good. There’s no reason for it to be privatized.

        • lud@lemm.ee
          21·
          11 months ago

          It can absolutely be privatised as long as some government body handles negotiations.

          Letting the private sector compete for public contracts can often reduce prices and make production more efficient. It needs to be handled well of course.

          It works pretty well here. The government negotiate the prices for medication to reasonable levels and every individual has a medication price cap that gradually reduces the price for medication until they are completely free (fully subsidised). After 12 months the price cap resets and the prices go up to normal. The price cap is set at ≈230 EUR.

          Apparently insulin is always free and so are some other stuff.

          Obviously this only applies to prescriptions.

          IMO a great system is a mix of both a strong private sector and a strong public sector with non corrupt governmental oversight.

          • NaibofTabr@infosec.pubEnglish
            03·
            11 months ago

            non corrupt governmental oversight

            I mean, we could just wish for a unicorn pony that shits glitter and barfs rainbows while we’re at it.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
            18·
            11 months ago

            Apparently insulin is always free and so are some other stuff.

            Oh so you mean literally what I said in my original comment?

            IMO a great system is a mix of both a strong private sector and a strong public sector with non corrupt governmental oversight.

            IMO a great system would be to round up the executives, board members, district heads, and shareholders into work camps. 😘

            • lud@lemm.ee
              2·
              11 months ago

              Did you miss the part where I disagreed with you, lol?

              You said that it has to be handled by exclusively the public sector and I said that it doesn’t. And I said that here we have accomplished a great system without that.

                • lud@lemm.ee
                  1·
                  11 months ago

                  It works great. Could you explain how it could be better? Seems like a terrible idea to just change things with no evidence that it would improve things.

                  The entire healthcare system could use a rework but there is nothing wrong with this system in particular.

                  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                    27·
                    11 months ago

                    Profit serves no function and could be removed from the system entirely. You’re just scared of change because you are a conservative.

            • intensely_human@lemm.ee
              13·
              11 months ago

              Yes we are familiar with your barely-concealed desire to kill people. What we’re trying to discuss is more of a help-poor-people thing, than it is a hurt-rich-people thing.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                08·
                11 months ago

                What? No! They should never be allowed to die. 🤭

                They have accumulated an incredible debt to society that they must pay back, no matter how long it takes! 😉

        • NaibofTabr@infosec.pubEnglish
          04·
          11 months ago

          could be handled by a public industry that produces a public good

          could be, in a fantasyland where all people do things out of pure altruism and always put the good of others ahead of their own self-interest.

          I used to believe people could be this way too. Then I turned 8.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
            56·
            11 months ago

            If public libraries were proposed today you would oppose them as fantasyland nonsense.

            In the real world, public works work.