[glenk]

I hadn't realized there was such a difference between cash price and prescription price.

Through work currently we can use a web site to help find your cheapest place for prescriptions. One bottle of Novolin R like you said about is about $25 from Walmart for cash price. One bottle of the same prescription with a discount coupon is $138 dollars.

That's still cheaper than Novolog/Humalog, but how in the world is it more expensive to buy insulin with a prescription and insurance than without? When I pay a 20% co-pay am I essentially paying my insurance company the extra money?

[maxerickson]

I think it's because of the pharmacy benefit managers mentioned in the article. You use your card, you pay the negotiated rate that they have with the insurance company. You pay cash, you pay the rate Walmart is willing to sell it at.

Of course it makes no sense that the fiddly details of how you buy medicine matter to the tune of 5x. I guess part of the problem is that an awful lot of people are insulated from the costs of their medical care.