You Can Buy Insulin Without A Prescription.
As anyone with diabetes can tell you, managing the disease with insulin usually means regular checkups at the doctor's office to fine-tune the dosage, monitor blood-sugar levels and check for complications.
But here's a little known fact: Some forms of insulin can be bought without a prescription.
Carmen Smith did that for six years when she didn't have health insurance and didn't have a primary care doctor. She bought her insulin without a prescription at Wal-Mart.
"It's not like we go in our trench coat and a top hat, saying, 'Uh I need the insulin,' " says Smith, who lives in Cleveland. "The clerks usually don't know it's a big secret. They'll just go, 'Do we sell over-the-counter insulin?' "
Once the pharmacist says yes, the clerk just goes to get it, Smith says. "And you purchase it and go about your business."
The over the counter insulin saves many people's lives. One vial of the insulin from Walmart at full price is $25.00. One insulin pen is $100.00.If you are an elderly person on Medicare, when you get to the donut whole and you will, you will be happy that you can get that cheap insulin for $25.00. Otherwise you will end up back in the emergency room with a diagnosis of diabetic ketoacidosis. Strips for diabetics to test their blood sugar cost $1.00 each. Add this to the cost of the insulin and syringes, only the well off can afford to monitor and adjust their blood sugar levels tightly. This is why we have so many diabetics in the US with kidney failure and amputations and blindness. It truly is sad.
But it's still a pretty uncommon purchase.
Smith keeps the tools for controlling her diabetes in this kit, which contains metformin, syringes, fast-acting insulin for daytime use and slow-release for overnight.i
Smith keeps the tools for controlling her diabetes in this kit, which contains metformin, syringes, fast-acting insulin for daytime use and slow-release for overnight.
Lynn Ischay for NPR
Smith didn't learn from a doctor that she could buy insulin that way. In fact, many doctors don't know it's possible. When she no longer had insurance to help pay for doctors' appointments or medicine, Smith happened to ask at Wal-Mart if she could get vials of the medicine without a prescription. To figure out the dose, she just used the same amount a doctor had given her years before.
As a diabetic for 45 years, I have used insulin for most of my life. I find the idea of requiring a prescription for it, idiotic. There are times when I lost or broke a vial on a trip and had to buy a replacement in a distant state. Laws that would require a prescription would threaten my life. It is hard enough to get syringes in this day and age. I disagree on the use of modern day insulin as better. They are sold at a higher cost to make more of a profit on you for "Big Pharma". You are paying not for the insulin but for the cute pen mechanism. My doctor tells me that in other countries, the Humilin N, R are the norm and are easy to regulate. I concur with the easy part.
Originally the first insulin's were sold by the way for cost as a benefit to mankind, not for greedy medical establishments.
As anyone with diabetes can tell you, managing the disease with insulin usually means regular checkups at the doctor's office to fine-tune the dosage, monitor blood-sugar levels and check for complications.
But here's a little known fact: Some forms of insulin can be bought without a prescription.
Carmen Smith did that for six years when she didn't have health insurance and didn't have a primary care doctor. She bought her insulin without a prescription at Wal-Mart.
"It's not like we go in our trench coat and a top hat, saying, 'Uh I need the insulin,' " says Smith, who lives in Cleveland. "The clerks usually don't know it's a big secret. They'll just go, 'Do we sell over-the-counter insulin?' "
Once the pharmacist says yes, the clerk just goes to get it, Smith says. "And you purchase it and go about your business."
The over the counter insulin saves many people's lives. One vial of the insulin from Walmart at full price is $25.00. One insulin pen is $100.00.If you are an elderly person on Medicare, when you get to the donut whole and you will, you will be happy that you can get that cheap insulin for $25.00. Otherwise you will end up back in the emergency room with a diagnosis of diabetic ketoacidosis. Strips for diabetics to test their blood sugar cost $1.00 each. Add this to the cost of the insulin and syringes, only the well off can afford to monitor and adjust their blood sugar levels tightly. This is why we have so many diabetics in the US with kidney failure and amputations and blindness. It truly is sad.
But it's still a pretty uncommon purchase.
Smith keeps the tools for controlling her diabetes in this kit, which contains metformin, syringes, fast-acting insulin for daytime use and slow-release for overnight.i
Smith keeps the tools for controlling her diabetes in this kit, which contains metformin, syringes, fast-acting insulin for daytime use and slow-release for overnight.
Lynn Ischay for NPR
Smith didn't learn from a doctor that she could buy insulin that way. In fact, many doctors don't know it's possible. When she no longer had insurance to help pay for doctors' appointments or medicine, Smith happened to ask at Wal-Mart if she could get vials of the medicine without a prescription. To figure out the dose, she just used the same amount a doctor had given her years before.
As a diabetic for 45 years, I have used insulin for most of my life. I find the idea of requiring a prescription for it, idiotic. There are times when I lost or broke a vial on a trip and had to buy a replacement in a distant state. Laws that would require a prescription would threaten my life. It is hard enough to get syringes in this day and age. I disagree on the use of modern day insulin as better. They are sold at a higher cost to make more of a profit on you for "Big Pharma". You are paying not for the insulin but for the cute pen mechanism. My doctor tells me that in other countries, the Humilin N, R are the norm and are easy to regulate. I concur with the easy part.
Originally the first insulin's were sold by the way for cost as a benefit to mankind, not for greedy medical establishments.