Is It Dangerous To Mix My Insulin And Alcohol
Mixing alcohol and insulin can cause serious side effects.
If you drink alcohol, ask your doctor about getting a prescription for a low-cost insulin that contains a different inactive ingredient than your current insulin.
Your doctor can help you learn about low-cost insulins and show you how to safely use them.
Start An Online Fundraiser For Insulin
Countless individuals use crowdfunding when their health insurance coverage isnt enough, or when they find themselves uninsured. Through online fundraising, you can easily connect with your network of friends and family members to find both financial and emotional support. Asking for help can be tough, but its important to remember that your cause is worthy of support, and those close to you do want to lend a hand.
Pharmaceutical Company Patient Assistance Programs
You may be able to get help with the costs of insulin and medication through drug assistance programs from pharmaceutical companies, known as patient assistance programs . Each program has its own eligibility requirements for people with type 1 diabetes, so its important to check those details. Here are a few programs offering assistance for diabetes medications:
You can also find a program by searching on the medication name here.
If you need assistance with your pump supplies or CGM, directly contact the manufacturer via their customer service number.
- Medtronic: 1-800-646-4633
- Abbott Diabetes Care: 1-855-632-8658
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Right To Health And The Right To An Adequate Standard Of Living
Health is a fundamental human right indispensable to the exercise of other human rights, and every human being is entitled to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health conducive to living a life in dignity. Unregulated high prices of insulin products, especially insulin analogs, combined with inadequate cost mitigation or health insurance coverage, contribute to out-of-pocket costs that impact the livelihoods of patients and cause damaging and potentially lethal insulin rationing.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is widely accepted as reflecting customary international law, states that all people have the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Similarly, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights guarantees the rights to an adequate standard of living and the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including the prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases and the creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness.
What If You Cant Afford Your Insulin
If you have diabetes and your doctor has prescribed insulin, you know how expensive this medication is. Youve probably seen the news, which has been full of stories recently about skyrocketing prices.
In fact, retail prices for the most commonly prescribed, newer insulin drugs have left some people unable to pay for it. According to a recent survey of pharmacies for current drug costs, the retail prices for popular brands range from $200 to $550 for one 10ml vial or a box of three pre-filled pens with 5ml. Some people with diabetes need several vials or boxes per month.
So what do you do if you cant afford your insulin? Explore these options:
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Consider Administering Your Insulin With A Lower
But important to note is that switching may come with additional burdens. The lowest cost delivery method is using a vial and injecting yourself by syringe. It also can be the most painful and difficult method, with the greatest room for errors leading to hypoglycemic episodes.
A prefilled syringe that you use to inject yourself in the fatty tissue with a very thin needle is a more expensive but convenient option, with less room for error in dosage. For comparison: a vial of Humulin R costs $191 per vial, or $0.19 per unit while a Humulin R Kwikpen costs $358 per pen and $0.24 per unit, according to the prescription-drug coupon app GoodRx.
A computerized pump, which delivers insulin 24 hours a day through a catheter placed under the skin, most closely mimics the bodys own way of releasing insulin. It is also the most expensive about $6,000 for the device, plus an additional $1,500 per year in supplies and not always covered by insurance. Plus, you must still pay for the insulin.
How To Budget For Diabetes Health Costs
Meanwhile, the idea of offering rebates directly to consumers at the point of sale is picking up steam. In 2018, UnitedHealthcare and Aetna announced that they would begin offering such rebates to some members of commercial plans this year. JDRF called on an additional 23 of largest health insurance companies in the United States to follow suit in November 2018. JDRF advocates prompted Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina to pass on rebates as well, Rice said.
Heilaman says offering consumers rebates seems great in theory, but hes skeptical that anything will cut into the profits of the PBMs and bring real savings to consumers. What we really need is legislation to remove unnecessary middlemen who provide little-to-no service from all aspects of healthcare, he says.
During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on February 26, 2019, drug manufacturer CEOs, including the head of Sanofi, also blamed rebates to PBMs for rising prices of medications and insulin. Meanwhile, bills aimed at bringing down drug costs are stalled in the U.S. Congress.
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Find A Way To Pay For Insulin Today
If you cant afford insulin, theres still hope. While many people cant wait to be accepted into financial assistance programs, you can start a fundraiser and begin raising money right away for any out of pocket medical expenses you encounter. Our fundraising platform means that you can keep more of the funds you raise, and our blog offers a medical crowdfunding guide to help along the way. today and get the help you need to pay for insulin.
Lilly Cares Foundation Patient Assistance Program
The Lilly Cares Foundation Patient Assistance Program provides free Eli Lilly insulin products for people with a limited income who have Medicare Part D or no insurance coverage.
The income requirements depend on your state and the specific Eli Lilly insulin your doctor has prescribed. Youll need to reapply for this program every year.
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So What Is The Solution
WHO recommends the increased local production of insulin and associated devices to cater to the demands of the population without having to pay a premium to large conglomerates.
Locally produced quality-assured insulins and associated devices may also improve to scale up production and operational costs.
Currently, case studies in six low-and middle-income countries showed that there was a cumulative mark-up of 8.7% to 565.8% for insulin, depending on country and health system context.
The WHO report also highlights the need to improve the collection and publication of data on diagnostic, pricing and usage of insulins and associated devices.
How Much Is Insulin
Insulin is the medicine thats key in helping people with Type 1 diabetes stay healthy and regulate their blood sugar. Many people with Type 2 diabetes also rely on insulin every day.
In 2016, a person with Type 1 diabetes paid an annual cost of $5,705 for insulin, according to a report by the Health Cost Institute. If youre wondering, Why does insulin cost so much? the answer is often not as clear as we might hope. According to the report, the rising costs are due to newer insulin products and higher costs set by pharmaceutical drug companies.
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Iv International Human Rights Standards
Unaffordable insulin products in the United States, especially insulin analogs, undermine rights protected under international human rights law, including the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the right to equal and affordable access to essential medicines, the right to equal protection under the law, and the right to an adequate standard of living.
Even for those who are able to afford high out-of-pocket costs without resulting to rationing their medicine, allocating necessary funds for insulin may come with opportunity costs for people living with diabetes, limiting access to higher education, home ownership, and other life goals, and resulting in damaging stress and anxiety.
Health In A Minute: Cant Afford Insulin Help Is Out There
To manage your diabetes, it is important to take your medications regularly, which can be easier said than done. There are multiple potential barriers to taking medication, one is undoubtedly cost. A 2018 international patient survey found nearly one in four patients taking insulin say they had difficulty affording their medications, leading to them possibly rationing their insulin. This is a huge problem, because not taking your medications can lead to poor health possibly even death.
The type of insurance you have, or if you have no insurance, can impact your eligibility for certain resources and programs. This article will help explain options that are available to help with the cost of insulin, based on the most common insurance situations people with no insurance and people on Medicare insurance plans who cant afford copays.
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Prices Comparison Of Common Types Of Insulin
Estimates are based on the price of one 10ml vial or three 5ml pens.
Rapid-acting or bolus insulin: Humalog Novolin Apidra
Short-acting insulin: Regular , Novalin , and ReliOn : $25
Intermediate-acting insulin: NPH , Novalin , and ReliOn : $25
Long-acting or basal insulin: Lantus Levemir Toujeo
Pre-mixed intermediate/short acting combination: Humulin , Novolog , and Humalog : $100 – $335 ReliOn : $25
How To Get Insulin When You Cant Afford It
Need to know how to get insulin when you cant afford it? The price of insulin is a huge problem here in the U.S.
In 1932, Frederick Banting discovered insulin, but he had refused to put his name on the patent. He thought it would be highly unethical for a doctor to profit from a discovery that would save millions of lives.
Not long after the discovery, Banting and his co-inventors James Collip and Charles Best sold the insulin patent to the University of Toronto for just $1. They firmly held the belief that anyone who needed medication for their diabetes deserved to be able to afford it easily.
Today, the average cost of insulin per month is $450, with a single bottle sometimes reaching as high as $350.
But insulin is just one of many examples of drugs and medications that have experienced inflated prices.
So, what gives? Why are insulin and other medication that is extremely important for millions of Americans so high?
And, for people with diabetes who are struggling with affording insulin, what options do they have?
Lets break it down.
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Remembering Shane Patrick Boyle
We never met Shane, nor did we connect with him online in any way.
But he was one of us. A member of our Diabetes Community, someone who had lived with type 1 for many years and just like us, relied on insulin to stay alive.
From accounts of those who knew him, inside and beyond our D-Community, Shane was an incredibly kind and gentle man with a huge, giving heart. He was a gifted creative writer and graphic artist who in 1993 founded the first unofficial ZineFest Houston event aimed at the do-it-yourselfers in the comics and artistic community.
As we understand it and from what weve seen , Shane had recently moved back home from Texas to Arkansas to take care of his sick mom, Judith . As a result of the move, Shane apparently lost access to healthcare and prescription coverage. He was also between doctors and in need of insulin apparently, he was waiting for his Affordable Care Act coverage to be approved and was stretching out his insulin until he had enough money to see a doctor to prescribe more insulin, and purchase it.
In early March, Shane set up a GoFundMe crowdfunding page in order to raise $750 for a months worth of insulin to get him by. Tragically, that didnt materialize in time to save him.
Our community lost Shane on March 18, and according to his GoFundMePage , Shane died because he was trying to stretch out his life-saving insulin to make it last longer.
Remember the 30-something in Ohio in who died due to no emergency access to insulin?
Cant Afford Insulin There Are Options
We all know the benefits of the newer insulins, i.e., faster action times, less peak from the long actings, etc. But the cost, more often than we know, can lead to patients decreasing insulin doses, doing without until the next payday, or doing without it altogether, as weve read about.
What are the responsibilities of health care providers, including pharmacy staff, when a medicine as life/health saving as insulin is not being taken as needed?
As providers, do we ever ask our patients with high A1cs, How many times a week do you miss or take a lower insulin dose? If they admit to taking less or even none, ask why. It could be they forgot, are trying to keep their weight down, or because they just cannot afford the insulin.
Since regular and NPH can be bought over the counter, are we not obligated to tell the patient about them? At about $25 a vial vs about $300 for the newer insulins, it is easy to see why some patients may not be able to pick up their Rx. Offer an alternative.
Know and teach the onset peak and action of the different insulins. The risk of lows is higher with NPH because of the peaks, but some of us lived with that insulin for many years. And the risk of highs are also higher when insulin is not matched with meal timing or able to correct as soon.
What patients can do to lower costs:
Jeannie Hickey RN, CDE, CPTType 1 for 53 yearsRetired KaiserAssistant Medical Director Diabetes, Youth & Families, operators of Bearskin Meadow CampConcord, CA
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Information Provided By Beyond Type 1
Will I be able to pay all of my bills this month?
Its a question people with diabetes who ration insulin have to ask themselves when its time to choose between refilling a prescription and paying bills.
Insulin rationing is, unfortunately, a reality for people living with diabetesboth type 1 and type 2. A 2017 study showed one in four people with diabetes has rationed their insulin due to financial hardship.1 Rationing insulin includes underusing the prescribed amount of insulin needed to maintain blood glucose control, not filling a prescription, limiting carbohydrate intake,2 or stopping insulin altogether. Unsurprisingly, it is likely to lead to poorer glycemic management1 and can lead to death from diabetic ketoacidosis ,3 particularly in people with type 1 diabetes. Not only does insulin rationing have a major impact on physical health, but it also takes a toll on ones mental and emotional health.
It certainly makes sense. The costs of insulin have skyrocketed over the years, tripling over the past decade.4 In general, financial distress is strongly associated with depressive symptoms.5
People living with diabetes are already reminded of their disease every day. The stress of worrying whether or not you can afford to live is just one more addition to the already enormous mental burden of living with a chronic disease.
HOW HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS CAN HELP RELIEVE DISTRESS FROM INSULIN RATIONING
Equal Protection And Non
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights , which the United States has ratified, and the ICESCR guarantee the right to equal treatment and protection under law, without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, property, or other status, including economic status. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination , which the United States has ratified, spells out in more detail protections against discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, and national origin, among others.
US constitutional law requires a finding of discriminatory intent before courts will rule unconstitutional discriminatory practices that disproportionately burden a racial group. But ICERD goes further, prohibiting policies and practices that have either the purpose or effect of restricting rights because of race. It proscribes apparently race-neutral practices that affect fundamental rights, regardless of racist intent, if those practices create unwarranted racial disparities.
Under the ICERD, governments may not ignore the need to secure equal treatment of all racial and ethnic groups, but rather must act affirmatively to prevent or end policies with unjustified discriminatory impacts. Governments are obligated to undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination … notably in the enjoyment of the right to public health medical care.
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Rebates Fuel List Price Increases
The 2021 Senate Finance Committee report on the factors driving rising insulin costs found that rebates for insulin have risen significantly in recent years, with some pharmacy benefit managers securing rebates for insulins as high as 70 percent of the list price.
These significant rebates, ostensibly designed to help lower premium costs for patients with health insurance, appear to be tied to increasing list prices generally and, according to the Senate Finance Committee, appear to have helped fuel the rapid increases in insulin analog list prices described in Section I, contributing to higher out-of-pocket costs for uninsured and underinsured patients who do not get discounts on the retail price of their medicine.
In the US, manufacturers of similar types of drugs, such as analog insulin, compete for coverage under health insurance plans through a largely unseen system of rebates, where drug manufacturers pay back a certain percentage of their drugs list price to pharmacy benefit managers and the health plans they represent.
As a result of these rebates, drug manufacturers list prices may remain the same or increase while the companies paying for their products may get larger and larger discounts for purchasing them.
Figure 1: US Prescription Drug Supply Chain
Simplified Prescription Drug Supply Chain Comparison for Person without Insurance or with Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance or Medicare