Greg's Corner

Insulin prices have killed again

Previously we’ve discussed how insulin is being priced out of the reach of many people who require the drug to keep their diabetes under control. Without proper medication, diabetes can become very dangerous very quickly. When insulin was first discovered the people who first discovered it refused to commercialize the drug claiming that it was unethical to profit from such a life-saving innovation. In the decades since that kind of altruism seems to have ceased to exist. Sadly, that loss of philanthropy has cost at least one man his life.

A 27-year-old man from Northern Virginia suffered from Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 the type of diabetes that you’re born with as opposed to Type 2 which develops through obesity. The man in question aged out of his parents’ health insurance and the insurance from his job was limited at best. He could no longer afford the $1,200 a month inulin cost. Instead, he purchased a $25 per vial from insulin that can be bought over the counter. Unfortunately, the over the counter insulin wasn’t effective enough for the man’s Type 1 diabetes and he died from a stroke after falling into a diabetic coma.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoMTMXbpeVE%5D

In a country that’s supposed to be a world leader in medicine, we’re punishing people for having illnesses that they have no control of. If they’re not having the price of their medications raised beyond reason, they’re being crippled with debt over the cost of repeated treatments. Then the public is told by politicians that while this kind of treatment is regrettable that’s just the way it is. Until the medical infrastructure in this country is overhauled, we’ll continue to suffer scores of preventable fatalities.