American Insulin Prices Are off the Charts

Insulin prices have risen dramatically in the United States over the course of the past decade, leaving millions of Americans who suffer from diabetes with high monthly costs. A comparative analysis conducted by the RAND Corporation in 2020 revealed the full scale of the problem, finding that insulin prices in the U.S. were dramatically higher than anywhere else.

As this infographic shows, the price per standard unit across all insulins in the U.S. was $98.70 compared to just $12.00 across the border in Canada and less than $10 in France, the United Kingdom, Australia and Turkey. An estimated 7 million people in the U.S. use insulin but the soaring prices are putting the life-saving drug out of reach of countless Americans who depend on it.

There are two primary reasons for the high price. The first one is that pharmaceutical manufacturers have the power to set their own prices and raise them without any limits while the second one is that there is a lack of competition in the U.S. insulin market.