The High Cost of Insulin in America
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[Music]
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when i was younger
i used to watch and as my mother
would inject her body with insulin or
prick her finger in order to test her
blood sugar
i now know that she did this because she
has type 1 diabetes
a chronic condition in which the
pancreas produces little or no
insulin now insulin regulates blood
sugar by allowing cells to use sugar to
produce energy
energy we use to move to talk to think
and even to breathe
and everyone needs it not just type 1
diabetics
every single person relies upon it but
whereas a person
without type 1 diabetes can produce
insulin on their own
a person with it cannot therefore simple
tasks such as breathing are at risk
and type 2 diabetes is different from
type 1
because type 1 is not due to lifestyle
choices
so they cannot control whether they get
this disease or not
which makes insulin a necessity for type
1 diabetics
now when i was little i didn’t
understand this so
i was just scared of shots and blood and
i didn’t understand that for my mom
testing and regulating her blood sugar
were the easy parts of being a type 1
diabetic
the most burdensome aspect is the high
cost of this
life-saving drug according to beyond
type 1
insulin is the sixth most expensive
liquid on earth
it’s more expensive than gold
fortunately for my mom she worked at a
school system which provided her with
quality health insurance because
individual health insurance companies
wouldn’t ensure her an individual policy
and even with this insurance which
helped to defray the cost
the co-pay was still really expensive
today my mom is in a different financial
situation so
the weight isn’t quite as heavy on her
shoulders but that doesn’t mean the
financial burden for paying
for insulin is gone it’s still a daily
lifelong hardship and rich or poor
the cost is still a tough pill to
swallow
watching my mother go through this my
whole life led me to wonder
how do people who aren’t as well off as
my family
managed to afford the insanely high
price of insulin
well the short story is some
don’t according to a 2017 article by
david m tripco of the washington post
a single vial of insulin can cost around
three hundred dollars
with insurance and on average a type one
diabetic goes through
two to three valves of insulin each
month which
can cost around six hundred to nine
hundred dollars
every single month for basic necessity
so someone working the average minimum
wage in america would have to work 82
hours
each month just to afford two balls of
insulin
and that’s assuming they have insurance
and don’t forget this is a chronic
condition so
they’re not just going to be paying for
insulin once or twice they’re going to
be paying for insulin
their entire lives that’s a lot of money
over time
because of these high costs some type 1
diabetics are having to dip into their
saving accounts or
go to other countries to buy insulin
that’s much cheaper
many are even having to ration their
insulin which means taking less than the
prescribed amount
this can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis
which in turn can lead to blindness
kidney failure and even death
yet according to a statistic from
healthday.com
as many as one in four type 1 diabetics
ration their insulin because
they can’t afford the cost
so it seems to me that type 1 diabetics
are being forced to choose between
working kidneys and providing food
for their families there are only three
main insulin manufacturers in america
which raises the cost because there’s no
competition
if there are more generic brands in the
market the prices would be lower but
these enso manufacturers
are paying other companies to stay off
the market
it’s clear to me that in some
manufacturers setting prices so high
and paying other companies to stay away
so they can continue to raise the price
are just profiting off the deaths of
type 1 diabetics
after learning about this i i wanted to
fix everything
to stop the struggling
i wondered why we couldn’t just cap the
price of insulin i mean
simple right apparently it’s not
since 2019 colorado has
capped the price of vincent only a
hundred dollars per month and
a few other states have been effective
in similar things but
most bills haven’t gotten anywhere
so how do we lower the cost
well first off more people need to be
aware of just how serious the situation
is
the more people who know about the
situation and speak up the more
pressures put on the government to make
reforms
and on insulin manufactures to lower the
cost
we all need to speak up and demand
reforms
on the regulatory and legal processes in
order to make it easier for generic
brands to enter the market
and i know every single person listening
this has known someone
at one point in their life who’s been
affected by the high cost of medicine in
america
whether it be from insulin epipens
asthma medications or some other
expensive medicine america
either way drug prices in america are
crippling our bank accounts
for the sake of type 1 diabetics like my
mom the price
needs to be lowered and everybody
hearing this has a bit the ability to
make a difference
whether it be from forming an advocacy
group writing to a local congressman
or just by simply educating others but
ultimately
it is up to us to make a difference in
the millions of type 1 diabetics
suffering
from the high cost of insulin in america
thank you
you