Diabetes Community

Many cities have health clinics that are either free or run as a satellite by larger hospital systems. These clinics may have partnerships with diabetic supply companies and will provide free equipment to qualified (usually low income) diabetes patients. The RxAssist.org (Patient Assistance Program Center) website may be able to offer assistance. You can also check with one or both of the following:
"022 Abbott Pharmaceuticals--offers direct assistance for patients needing help with getting diabetic supplies. You can call 1-800-222-6885 or go to the website at www.abbottpatientassistancefoundation.org . Abbott also offers a $15 co-pay program for users of its Freestyle blood glucose meters.
"022 Islets of Hope Program--offers a database of diabetic assistance programs listed by state. The URL for this program is: www.isletsofhope.com/diabetes/assistance-programs/main_1.html

If all else fails, your son can always check with his doctor and inquire about switching to regular insulin. Walmart pharmacies sell Novolin-R and Novolin-N for about $24 a vial and insulin syringes cost about $12.50 per hundred. Using regular insulin may require dosage adjustments from what he is currently using. He will also have to use standard insulin syringes instead of the more convenient insulin "pens." Your son's doctor is the best qualified to determine if a change in insulin regimen is suitable for your son but the significant cost difference does make it worth investigating. FYI, I have been using regular insulin exclusively for the past three years. I embarked on the experiment to see if regular insulin alone could successfully control my BG levels without having to use the more costly analogs and/or basal (Lantus and Levimir) forms of insulin.

The experiment so far has been 100% successful (for me personally) in keeping my A1c in the 5% club (my latest A1c test was 4.8 but has been decreasing steadily over the past three years from 5.2, 5.1, 5.0, 4.9, and now 4.. Of course, the use of insulin alone won't automatically provide such good test results. Lifestyle modifications in diet and exercise are extremely critical factors and both play more important roles than the average patient realizes.

thank you so much I will look into that for him. I appreciate the time you took to help me out, He has the diet diet and exercise thinh down pat..thank you again

Very informative. Thank you.

My husband was just laid off so we have lost our health insurance. I take Lantus and Humalog. I'm losing sleep figuring out how I'm going to pay for my insulin.

My insulin needs have gone down due to physical activity. The thing is I can't be active 24/7. When I don't take the Lantus, my BS numbers are sky high. Don't even have to eat anything.

Have to figure something out here.

I've heard from folks that Wal-Mart has their own repackaged insulin that they sell for a little cheaper than you can get it elsewhere. It's also worthwhile looking up the contact information for manufacturers of your medications. Sometimes they have assistance programs or coupon cards they give out. Good luck with everything!

Auriga, sorry to hear the bad news about your hubbie's job layoff and the loss of your health insurance. The Reli-On insulin that WalMart sells is just a private label brand manufactured either by Lilly (Humalin) or by Novo Nordisk (Novolin), depending upon their contract. Up until October. 2012, the insulin that Walmart provided was Humalin-R and Humalin-N. Even Lilly's name and packaging was the same as its own branded product except that the ones sold by Walmart included a small Reli-On logo on the box; apparently to differentiate it from the branded product sold elsewhere. Then in October, 2012, Walmart switched over to the Novolin brand of insulin (Novolin-R and Novolin-N). However, the price remained the same (approximately $24 per vial) and the two insulins are virtually identical (i.e., equivalent, interchangeable). In my body, I did notice a slightly faster initial onset with Novolin-R (approximately 30 minutes) compared to Humalin-R (approximately 45 minutes) but the two insulins are otherwise virtually the same in every other respect.

"Regular" insulin is similar to the human insulin that your body normally produces but, when injected, has a slower initial onset (and longer duration) of activity than the Humalog that you are currently using. Regular insulin is also not as "strong" so that a unit of regular insulin lowers blood glucose less than a unit of the analog insulin (regular insulin is reportedly about two-thirds as strong as analog). As a consequence, you may have to inject more units of regular than the comparable amount of analog insulin that you are accustomed to. If you are currently using relatively small doses of analog insulin, making the adjustment to regular is no big deal since small doses are easily corrected and/or adjusted with a little experimenting. For example, if you normally use 4 units of Humalog 15 minutes before a meal, using six units of regular (e.g., Walmart's Novolin-R) 30 minutes before a meal should produce equivalent results.

I use regular exclusively and re-use the syringe for as many injections that I require for a particular day. Unlike most, I re-use syringes not for financial reasons but to reduce the amount of medical waste that my insulin use generates. In extreme circumstances (e.g., when traveling overseas), I have re-used a syringe for up to three days but only if refrigeration was available. FYI, I refrigerate used syringes in a syringe holder to minimize the potential for bacterial growth and contamination and have never experienced an adverse event in over five years. I also don't use alcohol swabs as I am very hygienic and use aseptic techniques. This is not to be construed as a suggestion or recommendation for others to follow; only to indicate that syringe re-use can be performed quite safely if a few commonsense rules are followed. Also, to offset the lack of a basal insulin, I simply use multiple injections of regular. For example, like yourself, my blood glucose tends to rise even if I don't eat anything. I simply inject a couple of units of regular during certain time periods (based on history, track record, and experience) and it keeps my blood glucose levels fairly stable yielding near-normal A1c test results.

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Good tip! Here's some more...

Nonprofit hospitals are required by law to have affordable treatment programs for the uninsured and underinsured. Many hospitals and doctors' offices will also waive a percentage of your bill if you pay in cash. By negotiating price, questioning the necessity for each test and requesting a payment plan, you can get treatment most anywhere.

But, you need to ask...

NutriJoy, thank you for the informative post.

If you don't mind, how high does your sugar rise even if you don't eat anything? Before the Lantus, my a.m. fastings were between 250-300. I was not paying attention one morning and injected my Lantus. Two hours after my meal which consisted of one egg and one slice of 12-grain bread (19 grams of carbs), my 2-hr. PP was 435. My Lantus had expired by one day. I don't take my reading one hour after a meal. If I had, I'm sure it would have been around 600.

I'll see if my doctor thinks the Novolin would work. I wouldn't mind if I had to take the two. The price of Lantus without insurance is $300 some and Humalg around $200 something at a major national pharmacy. This pharmacy has the highest retail prices around on all medications. Another pharmacy might be $100 less, but still, paying $400 somthing would be not eating for a month basically. Wouldn't need the Humalog if I cut out all carbs, I guess.

This isn't the first time I had no insurance. I wasn't taking insulin though at that time.

Just found out Cobra out-of-pocket is $1,944 per month. Yeah, right. A joke. A big joke.

As long as I can find a routine that will keep my sugars from running amuck, I will be very happy.

Thanks again.

Thank you, Quacker for this website. I shall check it out.

Auriga, my BG rises about 5 points an hour, sometimes more, during daytime hours even though I don't eat anything. Emotional situations can cause much greater increases. During the early morning hours, the rise increases to ten points an hour; often rising more than twenty but rarely more than thirty points between the hours of 4 am to approximately 6:30 am (my usual get-out-of-bed time). After many months of experimentation, I now inject 1 to 2 units (varies) at bedtime depending upon my BG results and that keeps me stable through about 2 am. Depending on what time I wake up to go to the bathroom (typically between 2 am and 3 am), I usually inject another 2 units to counter the Dawn Phenomenon. I do not bother to check my BG levels before injecting that dose because 2 units of regular isn't going to create a serious hypo condition; at least not in my body based on many months of testing over past years. Occasionally I do perform a meter check but have never been below the 80's. After injecting 2 units of regular at 2am — 3 am, my waking BG levels are usually in the low to mid 80's (in my body, regular insulin peaks after 3.5 hours but each of us may have slightly different results so a bit of experimentation is essential). Using regular insulin is not as convenient as using a basal insulin but it's a whole lot less expensive. Also, regular insulin keeps a lot longer than a basal insulin; the latter typically loses its potency after 28 days. In contrast, I use a vial of regular for approximately 60 days with no discernible loss in effectiveness (I do keep the opened vial refrigerated).

Thanks for answering my question.

My dog uses 50 units of insulin/night.He has no insurance. He uses regular human insulin. I get 2 (two) regular size bottles of insulin for $48.Sam's Club. You do not have to be a member to use the pharmacy.