I'll be honest. I'm a little scared. Tonight I started the generic insulin. Supposedly it's cheaper than the pens.
From the first day I started this insulin therapy back in February of 2009, I've been on the pens. I love them. They are awesome. 300 units packed in a prefilled pen so compacted I could take it anywhere. I took them to Maui. I took them on the road. I knew that if we flew anywhere I had enough insulin to last me roughly 14 days. Not that I would go anywhere for 14 days. Atleast not anymore. 8 days is my max nowadays.
Only problem is I had two pens. A daytime and a nighttime, the fast acting for meals and the long lasting for night/part of the day. These pens are pretty expensive, especially when you don't have insurance or you have crappy insurance. My daytime cost $346 without insurance and $275 with insurance, roughly $1384 a year. My nighttime cost $250 without insurance and $225 with insurance, roughly $1000 a year. Massage Envy had crappy insurance, which everyone that worked there knows exactly what I'm talking about. But for that amount of money I got 5 pens with 300 units in each equaling 1500 units total. If each pen lasted roughly 14 days then I had 10 week worth of insulin. So it was costing me between $30 - $35 dollars a week.
Insulin is expensive. Staying alive is expensive. And I haven't even factored the cost of meters, lancers, needles, or test stripes. Hell, the glucagon that I have to keep near me at all times if my blood sugar goes too low (we're talking about 20 - 40) costs $200 with crappy insurance. And it's my life saver during extreme circumstances. Luckily, we have had the need to use it. But still, it amazes me how much it cost to keep people like me alive. However, the insulin drug companies realize that a lot of diabetics are unable to buy the insulin needed to survive and are offering coupons and in some cases free insulin. This makes me happy because at least someone is looking out for us knowing that many diabetics risk high blood sugar in order to make insulin last longer. The downside is, when you undermedicate you DKA.
During my hospitalization, my new Endo introduced me to generic insulin. The insulin in glass vials where you have to use a syringe. Supposedly it's cheaper even though I have to use more of it. Well, right now I have to use more of it. So the cloudy is $70 and the clear is $68. Both vials contain 1000 units. But because I use so much insulin (which I'm hoping to lower by March), the cloudy lasts 27 days and the clear lasts 50 days. Which if you think about it, is amazingly cheap. The cloudy will cost me $945 a year and the clear will cost $496.40 a year. Even better, I don't have to have a prescription to get the generic.
Do you see the difference?
The generic insulin total almost equals the daytime total. It's insane! Absolutely insane!
Only problem with the generic is my blood sugar ranges from 50 - 150 with the generic and I think I'm going to have to invest in a diabetic kit when I go out of town. But hey, now I can vacation for over 2 weeks with the vials and not have to worry about running out.
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