The new US insulin bill doesn’t actually cap the medicine’s price
Following up on the promise to contain the sky-rocketing cost of insulin, the US House of Representatives passed a law that should make the lifesaving drug accessible for more Americans.
Currently, the price of a standard vial of insulin in the US ranges between $175 and $300, and the average patient needs about two a month. On average, the 30 million Americans being treated for diabetes (an additional 7 million Americans don’t know they have diabetes) spend twice as much as the rest of the population on healthcare costs, and more than $9,500 a year in expenses related to the condition.
It’s a price that is completely out of line with the rest of the world. A 2020 study found that the reported average price for rapid-acting insulin in the US was $113.39 per vial, or 13 times the average in comparable countries ($8.19). Intermediate-acting insulin was $73.56 per vial, or 12 times higher than the non-US average of $5.95. Prices have only risen since then.
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