Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by nceqs3 1606 days ago
You are comparing an insured price to a cash list price (most of which does not go to the pharma co and a price which effectively nobody pays). As an insured American, I would pay 0$ for insulin.
3 comments

False. 5 doses of Novorapid insulin (first one I found on Google) is 22.07 EUR in France. After the public insurance scheme, that's 7.72 EUR (or 2.20 EUR in my region). And then you can get further reimbursement from the employer's (or your own) private insurance.

Edit: I just remembered that diabetes is recognised as a long term condition, so you would be 100% reimbursed by the public insurance scheme.

No, cash list price of insulin in most countries is around $30. As uninsured person you can still buy insulin for this price in Mexico or order it from India.
That's not really a good counterpoint if the non-insured prices are patently insane. How on Earth is it justifiable for insulin to cost 300 dollars? Here it seems to be around 20-40 euros before the deduction you will get from our national health bureau (which can vary from 0% to 100% depending on your diagnosis and the medication you need.)

On top of the national mandatory health insurance, there's also optional private health insurance and private hospitals and such, but even for those the prices are nowhere near the insane numbers I see whenever US healthcare is discussed, and I frankly can't understand how people aren't revolting over there.

Is it 20 to 40 euros for any and all insulin or specific insulins?
Didn't look that closely; there seems to be variance depending on how large an individual dose is and how many doses are included. I suppose the "price of insulin" is ill-defined without mentioning the dosage.