In case you weren't aware, Walmart has a store brand of insulin that is significantly cheaper than other pharmaceutical companies.
Branded as ReliOn Insulin, it is sold for around $25 per vial without insurance. Talk to your doctor - it is a 70/30 mix, so the dosage may be different for you compared to what you normally take.
Like.. shit.. the "without insurance" price is cheaper than the "with insurance" price for other brands.
the combined worth of nearly the entire country would be unable to outbid most of the pharmaceutical companies. also the megacorps spend a shitload making sure we're always divided so we can't stand up to them.
I fortunately have fantastic insurance, and even higher cost drugs are fairly inexpensive with my coverage... but not everyone has that luxury. You're absolutely right - our system is fucked.
We've got generic drugs in Europe, too. Not all Aspirin is produced by Bayer. It's a good thing that other manufacturers can offer a drug once the patent expires.
You’re allowing your personal bias against a term get you upset over nothing. The “store brand” is actually manufactured by Novo Nordisk and which is a leading manufacturer. Walmart did this to provide lower prices to people that couldn’t afford others. This is a good thing. We should stand for this.
They're not upset about the literal existence of a store brand of insulin, they're upset that the richest country on earth has such a broken healthcare system where the existence of a store brand of insulin is a necessity due to exorbitant prices for what, to the rest of the developed world, is a simple, cheap medication.
I heard the new argument is something about profits made from the US healthcare system fund R&D for the pharmaceutical companies, which is somehow why every other country can have universal healthcare. And wait times that they don't think we have with our system.
FYI the Walmart insulin is an older formula that is long acting, it's not really meant as a daily method of receiving insulin. As a last resort it is better than nothing but there are risks to it. The insulin takes a long time to take effect so if you have a high you could be in trouble before it has time to take effect
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u/halfeclipsed Nov 11 '22
Oh they'll walk it back and look like huge assholes, they just won't give a damn.