As the mom of two children with Type 1 diabetes, I constantly worry: What if my husband and I lose our health coverage or can no longer afford the medicines they need because drug corporations raise the prices beyond our means?
Our sons, Thomas and Owen, both have Type 1 diabetes. Owen was diagnosed in 2011 at age 2 and Thomas was diagnosed in 2017 at age 9. They will need insulin for the rest of their lives to manage the condition. When it comes to the price of insulin, the drug corporations have all the power and families like us are at their mercy.
We moved from the East Coast to San Diego for work when our kids were young. But insulin is expensive no matter where you live in the U.S., even if you have insurance coverage like we do. Our sons’ insulin cost us about $200 per month, even with our employer-sponsored health insurance. Our insurance plan requires us to meet our deductible, $2,900 per person, before coverage kicks in.
On one visit to the pharmacy, the price tag for insulin was $500 — more than twice what I typically pay. I was prepared to leave without it, but the pharmacist offered me a coupon that reduced the price to $100. Insulin prices in the U.S. are clearly a shell game in which everyone profits except for the patients.
Americans pay around two and a half times as much for prescription drugs as people in other developed countries. Our prescriptions cost so much because the pharmaceutical industry wields monopoly control to set and keep drug prices high. So while the U.S. makes up only 15% of the global insulin market, we account for nearly half of the revenue that these corporations bring in every year. They make billions in profit while families like mine worry about keeping our kids alive.
Our elected officials have an opportunity to fix this problem and protect families from the relentless price-gouging that endangers our health and economic security.
Read the full story here: Big Pharma Price-Gouging Endangers American’s Health and Economic Security • Children’s Health Defense