HIV Medications, The Price of Not Having Insurance

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Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

This is a brief look at what drug prices are at for HIV medications and why our healthcare system can fall short. This does not only hurt the 40 million in the US without insurance but also those who are underinsured. AIDS drugs can run thousands of dollars a month, depending on the given regimen. A common starting regimen consists of Lopinavir (Kaletra) boosted by Ritonavir/Lamivudine/Zidovudine. The cost of a 30 day supply for each drug can be as high as 198.99$, 289.99$, 385.88$, 170.00$. This totals over 1,000$ a month in just HIV medications. Other starting regimens including atripla can be more then 1500$ for a one month supply. If you don’t have health insurance the cost of your care can exceed your reach with the comination of health related bills. You can even just be underinsured for medication costing you large copays exceeding 500 dollars a month. These factors can make it very hard for uninsured to pay for their medical bills and not go into debt. In the end this can hurt the overall health care you recieve, and potentially forces patients to go without care.

If you recently were diagnosed with HIV all the new medications and treatment options can overwhelm you. You should see a doctor, and a HIV specialist if possible. They should take labs immediatly to help you start to get a better idea when to start treatment. The NIH did a study and determined the level at which you should begin treatment. Mortality rates increase if HAART is initiated below 0.200 x 10(9) cells/L. Also, nonadherent patients have higher mortality rates than adherent patients with similar CD4+ cell counts. Above a CD4 count of 0.200 x 10(9) cells/L, medication adherence is the critical determinant of survival, not the CD4+ cell count at which HAART is begun.

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