Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher

Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by phonon on Monday January 08, 2018 @06:18AM (#16096024)

> In the US, I guess they aren't so lucky - if I lived there, my Humira treatment would financially destroy me - and probably my entire family, too.

What makes you say that?

Either private insurance would cover it, or Medicaid (for low income people) or they essentially give it away to uninsured people through a non-profit foundation. (AbbVie Patient Assistance Foundation)

https://www.humira.com/humira-complete/cost-and-copay

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Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by pjc50 on Monday January 08, 2018 @08:15AM (#16096458)

How did this happen, then? https://www.snopes.com/shane-patrick-boyle-died-after-starti...

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Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by cnewey on Monday January 08, 2018 @06:27AM (#16096052)

I'm not especially familiar with the structure of the US health insurance system, but I think that the lower costs mentioned on the page you linked largely depends on either receipt of considerable amounts of state aid, or having pretty high-quality insurance.

Certainly, if you were to flick through various forums for those with Crohn's disease (e.g. [1]), you'd find many stories of people paying hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars for a month's Humira treatment.

[1]: https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=22...

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Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by maxerickson on Monday January 08, 2018 @08:41AM (#16096613)

Under current law (the ACA), the maximum annual payment would be $7,350 (on top of monthly insurance premiums).

That's for the lowest benefit, qualifying ACA plans and assuming the prescription is covered. The "cash" price is ~$4000 a month (https://www.goodrx.com/humira ) so even the lowest benefit plans are kicking in quite a bit of support (but probably also negotiating the price down quite a bit).

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Re:Humira’s Drug Formula: Start at a High Price, Go Higher by daturkel on Monday January 08, 2018 @08:17AM (#16096468)

This is how the payment structure was explained to me when i started taking the drug. Ultimately i pay $5/mo, my insurance pays some amount, and Abbvie i guess pays the difference. I'm not sure what set of circumstances leads to people paying higher prices, given the info the commenter above linked to.

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