Why your asthma inhaler is so expensive (in the US)(educatedguesswork.org)
15 pointsby duckduckgo4 hours ago2 comments
  • CobaltFire16 minutes ago
    We've been dealing with this exact issue with Flovent for my son.

    Amusingly our insurance's captive/preferred pharmacy wants to mail us the generic for $40 + 25 S+H instead of us buying it locally for $150. Except that they can't climate control the shipment and it's 20F over the rated temp of the inhaler here today, in the shade. So their in house pharmacist allowed an override.

    Still a royal PITA.

  • goodmythical3 hours ago
    I once encountered a small scale smuggling operation in which prisoners were smuggling their inhalers out of a prison to sell on the street.

    The prisoners were receiving as much as $10 per inhaler, funded by a family on the outside that couldn't afford the inhalers at pharmacy prices.

    • ekr____3 hours ago
      That's amazing. A lot of people import them from Canada, but this is much more interesting.
      • goodmythical2 hours ago
        It's fascinating isn't it? You'd never suspect that people are smuggling drugs out of prison, but the inhalers weren't the only thing either.

        I'm not sure it's ever been looked in to, but having seen it first hand, I can tell you there's a whole hustle for people on the inside trying to get prescribed expensive drugs in order to supplement their meager existences.