Novo Nordisk is among the insulin manufacturers who are modifying their patient assistance programs to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. RELATED: Why Is Insulin So Expensive? (and What to Do if You Can’t Afford It) Novo Nordisk Opens Free Insulin Program to People Who Lost Insurance Due to COVID-19 Many people with type 2 diabetes also take diabetes medication, and some take insulin. People with type 1 diabetes do not make insulin on their own, so they must inject the hormone in order to survive. The cost of other diabetes prescriptions rose by more than one-third over the same period, from $3,022 to $4,119. The average annual cost that people with type 1 diabetes spent on insulin doubled between 20, from $2,864 to $5,705, according to the Health Care Cost Institute. This is on top of at least 28 million people who were already uninsured.Īs mentioned, that’s on top of the existing treatment affordability issue, especially when it comes to insulin. An estimated 7.3 million people and their families in the United States could end up losing their insurance as a result of pandemic-related job losses through June, according to research shared in the Annals of Internal Medicine in April. Isaacs is seeing a rise in queries about PAPs as more people lose their jobs and insurance coverage during the pandemic. RELATED: 10 Diabetes Care Tips During the Coronavirus Pandemic “They can range from a person with Medicare who just has to pay a lot or is in the doughnut hole to the person who just lost their insurance to a person who has commercial insurance and has an employer, but is going to the pharmacy and getting stuck with really high copays,” she says. She sees a wide variety of people using PAPs. “I would say at least half of my patients are affected by the cost of insulin,” says Diana Isaacs, PharmD, CDCES, a clinical pharmacy specialist at the Cleveland Clinic Diabetes Center in Ohio, who also is a spokesperson for the Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists. As a last resort, you may be considering taking advantage of a patient assistance program (PAP) from insulin manufacturers to obtain low-cost or free options. But now, amid a global health crisis that’s led to a record-breaking unemployment rate in the United States, there’s a chance you’ve found yourself in this predicament for the first time. Many people with diabetes were struggling to afford insulin and oral medications long before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
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