The piece I wrote last week about the high cost of breathing for many Americans, including me, prompted calls and emails and turned out to be more timely than I expected. As I noted, my Medicare Part D pharmacy plan required me to pay $606.00 for a three-month supply of Symbicort, one of the leading inhaler brands. What I have learned is that the cost of inhalers for people in the U.S. with asthma (25 million), COPD (16 million) and other respiratory issues has been increasing rapidly, in large part because of the unavailability of approved generics. And insurers and their PBMs, largely useless when it comes to health care price increases, punish people who need inhalers by making them pay more and more every year out of our own pockets.
I’ve used Advair for YEARS! The med is generic, they made the money on the DELIVERY mechanism. Which incidentally I’ve never seen a difference between that and albuterol which is the good old standard inhaler feature. For many years it retailed at around $600 per inhaler in the US and depending on insurance I paid anywhere from $90 to $150 for a 90-day supply. I’m sure others had different prices because, you know, basically no regulation.
At a recently turned 53, I’m not confident we will see change in our lifetime(s). Thanks for all that you do to inform the public.
How Big Insurance, PBMs, the FDA, Congress and AstraZeneca made me pay so much for my inhaler.
I’ve used Advair for YEARS! The med is generic, they made the money on the DELIVERY mechanism. Which incidentally I’ve never seen a difference between that and albuterol which is the good old standard inhaler feature. For many years it retailed at around $600 per inhaler in the US and depending on insurance I paid anywhere from $90 to $150 for a 90-day supply. I’m sure others had different prices because, you know, basically no regulation.
At a recently turned 53, I’m not confident we will see change in our lifetime(s). Thanks for all that you do to inform the public.