The High Cost of Insulin in America

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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