This is a short diary because I am in shock.
Yesterday I refilled two of my prescriptions ... Levemir Flex-Pen and Novalog Flex-Pen. Both are insulin and I have been taking them since 2007. Since I am not yet 65 and have had no insurance since January 2008 and no longer qualify for charity meds and hated the begging for drugs process, I have been paying for them out of pocket (mostly, although I do have the Walgreen card which saves me a little bit on scripts).
When I went to pick up my scripts, I found out that the Novlog had gone from about $250 to $329 since I bought it last about 2 months ago. Since I had started buying it, it had gradually been going up, $10 here, $20 there but $80 in a single bound was a rather stiff jump.
I understand the need for profit and for research dollars, but I don't understand how the price for an established medicine goes up so much so suddenly. Is this a new way to undermine the establishment of the new health care law (I don't like "Obamacare" and can't ever remember the acronym) or a way of killing off indigent sick people?
I imagine that for people that have other diseases and take super expensive drugs, this might be small potatoes but it was not for me. Still, it seems rather odd that a well established drug that has not had any changes in formula, delivery system or even the design of the box should increase in price so seemingly arbitrarily and suddenly.
The good news is that I turn 65 in October and will have medical and drug coverage again. The bad news is that I fear all drugs will increase in price until those of us on the edge will fall completely off.
Thanks for letting me vent ... I am still not over the sticker shock.
UPDATE
The mystery has been solved thanks to etbnc who linked me to this story U.S. Insulin Prices Rise as Sanofi, Novo Nordisk Await Rivals in BloombergBusinessWeek.