Good Job...Now Show Me More

With the recent national attention being brought to the skyrocketing insulin prices in the past several years, pharmacies, drug companies, and insurance companies have been shed in a pretty poor light. You know it is important when national media is reporting on it. This has been going on for a while, and I haven’t had much to say on the subject. Not because I don’t think it’s an issue, but because there are people out there with a bigger voice than mine, who have been raising attention to the issue and having fantastic conversations with each other, and the pharma/insurance companies as well.

I understand, as a company, things like this shed your business in a poor light. It feeds the “big, bad, out-for-profits-not-people” image that companies hate. So what do you do as a company to fix that image? How do you make the general public begin to say “maybe this company isn’t so bad?”

Well, you do what CVS and NovoNordisk did today. You announce that you have cut a deal for $25 dollar bottles of insulin!!

Wow, CVS and NovoNordisk!!! You’re amazing and so kind and wonderful and great!

But are they really? If you read on, and you’re a person with knowledge of diabetes, the types of insulin that fall under this are Novolin R, Novlin N, and Novlin 70/30. That’s cool, right? Right??? Well, I give them credit for trying to help out. Walmart has had a similar plan for years on these insulins (or their equivalents). So if a person with diabetes really needed a bottle of insulin, they would be able to affordably get them. I give props for that!

The problem comes in when you look at these particular insulins. I used to take R & N (a different compay’s version, but the same thing). I stopped taking them 21 years ago. And I was behind the times when I did so. These insulins work. They will keep a person with diabetes alive, but they (I include 70/30 in this) are not a “best practice” insulin. They are outdated and do not work as well as newer insulins. It is more difficult to control blood sugars when you take these insulins. Keeping tight control, and making long term outcomes the most positive they can be, is nearly impossible on these insulins. I will note that some people use Novolin R, N & 70/30 and are heathly and well. It is just NOT the norm.

I’ve heard from friends in “the know” that this is a start. A foot-in-the-door, so to speak. That is wonderful. But don’t be fooled. It isn’t wonderful. It IS better than nothing. It is a start. It WILL help some people. And if I were to lose my health insurance, I could use these insulins in a pinch to keep myself alive.

No person should have to decrease their quality of life, or their ability to easily (as easily as can be with diabetes) treat their diabetes. I know CVS and NovoNordisk can do better. I challenge them to do so. So from me to them, a pat on the back for a good start. Now keep going.