Woman says her son couldn't afford his insulin; now he's dead - Sensationalist Headlines

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mother-fights-for-lower-insulin-prices-after-sons-tragic-death/ Her son, Alec, was a Type 1 diabetic – someone who needs to take insulin every day to survive. But turning 26 meant his parents' insurance would no longer cover the cost, shooting his monthly cost for insulin and supplies up to $1,300 per month, according to his mom. "My son died because he could not afford his insulin," she said. What she said Alec didn't tell her was that he was struggling with that cost. He'd started trying to ration his insulin to make it last longer. It wasn't enough. He died after falling into a diabetic coma alone in his apartment. An example of how fucked insurance prices in the USA are.

lmao theyve even made it so they cant be properly sued actually fuck off

People call China a third world country masquerading as first world, but the same could apply to the US as well in some aspects.

Except even certain third world countries do their best to look after their citizens health.

My ex-gf is a type 1 diabetic - a most sweet person particularly - and the idea falling into a coma alone and dying is extremely sad, because diabetics can appear and lead perfectly healthy, happy lives and have healthy children. All those great possibilities are gone, all because of money.

USA in a nutshell https://i.imgur.com/lXZNOSK.jpg https://i.imgur.com/hW9TV6Y.png

Thanks, capitalist pigs. This is why healthcare shouldn't be a commodity.

My grandparents pay a grand a month for a pill they take and started using a Canadian pharmacy for 90 days worth at the same price. And now you've got shilled lawmakers trying to make it illegal. Every drug manufacturer that does this deserves to be sued to hell.

ya i'm coming up to 26 and the amount of jobs that offer healthcare benefits are shrinking. its unconscionable to argue for our employment based healthcare system and do absolutely nothing to force employers to offer healthcare. The ACA was supposed to do that but even then in practice you get sick you can't work you loose insurance you die and that is what happens when you tie work to insurance and even the ACA can't stop that.

only third world country people can't afford health care themselves /s

I hate that the article has to specify that it's type 1 diabetes, I'm sure if it was type 2 the usual crowd of jackasses would be saying he deserved it and brought it on himself.

The US is bad photo shops of personal injury attorney billboards?

I mean it's relevant information that it was type 1 and not type 2 imo. Either way, the fact that he would've had to pay $1300 for insulin a month is completely ridiculous. Obviously insulin is not just insulin, but it's literally a hundred years ago that we figured out this treatment, and as far as I'm aware, the manufacturing process has been broadly the same the last 40 years.

The republicans couldnt give less of a shit too.

I am so damn happy insulin is free in Sweden. Dying from a diabetic coma is not just the coma itself but first a day or so of vomiting, abdominal pain, deep gasping breathing, increased urination, weakness, confusion, and finally loss of consciousness.

From a recent paper, Production costs and potential prices for biosimilars of human insulin and insulin analogues : Assuming a dosage of 40 units/day (WHO defined daily dose for insulin), these estimated prices [for production, refinement, packaging, and delivering] translate to a cost per patient per year of US$48–133

It's just plain price-gouging, the kinds of things that are usually illegal in emergency situations like when gas stations try to charge $30 for an 8-pack of water bottles during a hurricane. Meanwhile, insulin, EpiPens, and other necessary life-saving drugs go up in price each year. EpiPens sold in the US are, iirc, over $500 each without insurance. They are no more than $50 in other countries. It's just evil greed.

I'm surprised we dont see individuals robbing places for meds their lives rely on.

Insulin is a lifesaving drug that millions of people need to survive including my mother. She was forced to basically buy it from a friend who was selling it at a loss to her because she couldnt afford it. The country needs to take a long look at its citizens and ask if healthcare is something you want to force people into poverty over. Its as lifegiving as water is when you need it. So why should i be charged 15000 for a case of water when i collapse in the street of dehydration.

As a type 1 diabetic, I'm pretty sure that the most dangerous thing that could happen to me would be to end up in jail. There are limits to how many times you can test blood sugar, as well as when and how it is taken. I keep a very tight control, sometimes testing more than 10 times per day, and making small insulin corrections constantly. This has kept me, so far, from having any diabetic neuropathy or complications. If I had that control taken away from me, getting severe neuropathy within the year would likely be the least of my worries. Even other diabetics have trouble understanding how to control this disease, and I sure as hell don't trust a prison guard to care when it's just expected that diabetics are going to be a health wreck. Even when I was first diagnosed in the emergency room, the doctors explained it to me as if I was going to lose all feeling in my feet before I walked out of that hospital.

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/716/b9be2010-6592-4b2d-88c4-91c71bf9e1f0/19y;01mo;06dy - 17hr;52mi;19s;078ms - 608W x 608H -52b - chrome.png

I get really sick of the "young people are healthy and can just choose not to have insurance" bullshit I hear from people, including my grandma. Funny since I'm 22 and she should know I have to take a huge cocktail of medications daily in order to balance my multiple mental issues that are chronic and will be around forever. I'm lucky enough to qualify for medicaid so I don't have to pay a cent. I didn't fucking make "A bad choice in life" and ended up with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, depression, and a myriad of other issues. This dude had type 1 diabetes, so you can't even blame spin this one as a bad choice as you potentially could with type 2. He was just born fucked and got fucked by the system for having a chronic disease. People don't even want that kind of stuff covered by insurance, period. It used to be if you had a chronic disease you were just fucked if Hilton wasn't your daddy, even with insurance. But hey they're young and "healthy" so they can just choose not to have insurance, apparently being born fucked doesn't matter to these sociopaths on medicare.

I'm so thankful that I have the NHS to cover my medical expenses. Alec Smith-Holt was 26, about the same age as a lot of us FPers. It's horrible to even imagine being in his situation, unable to afford something your life depends on.

That's me in 3 years. Even on insurance, my insulin is so goddamn expensive that the pharmacist apologizes and thinks that there's a mistake every time I go to pick it up. If I didn't have insurance, I'd literally have to pay thousands a month just for a couple of bottles of insulin. For my family, we literally had to beg a local doctors office for "trial" bottles of insulin at one point. It's so goddamn suffocating and none of us chose for me to be a type one diabetic. I'm lucky because my family was relatively okay in the lower middle class, if we were any poorer I'd probably simply be dead like this guy... It makes me so angry when people are against socialized healthcare when they're either rich or healthy. I feel like I can contribute and pay back to society tenfold if it were to take care of me. Instead I've been struggling to get by every month.

look on the bright side guys even if you cant afford your vital medicine you can always afford a gun to kill yourselves with

This is really sad but honestly very true. You can buy a gun for <$200.

I bubble with anger every time I think about how the inventors of insulin sold the patent over for $1 hoping to give cheap or even free access to folks the world over, and this is what that legacy has turned into. As the presidential elections start up, I recommend paying close attention and demand candidates support a Medicare For All program. Don't let them weasel out with promises of Medicare Extra for All, guaranteed "access" to care, or anything like that. We need a truly universal healthcare system and until we get it people will continue to die like this.

Following up on this, I felt like doing some math, just for the people who don't feel like it. Assuming the high-end value of $133/yr for getting a patient's insulin ready to be sold to them (so including all the logistics of production, refinement, packaging, and delivering to pharmacies), and assuming the article's $1300/mo is for the same amount of insulin that the article uses, which is 40 units a day: $1300/mo * 12 months/year = $15,600/yr. 15600 / 133 = 117.29 Translated into percentage points, again assuming the above numbers: This man's insulin cost him 11,700% what it cost to produce and prepare to sell to him. Let that sink in: 11,700%. A nearly twelve thousand percent markup, on a cheap and mass-produced drug that people literally need to survive. God fucking bless America.

Yep, this is monstrous. This is an actual adult fear. Complete helplessness in a situation like this.

My mom's husband had a heart attack. A pretty bad STEMI where he technically died several times, was resuscitated each time, made it just long enough for a surgeon to put stents in, and managed to survive. They were slapped with a $240,000 bill, and it was right after they signed up for Obamacare so it hadn't kicked in yet. LUCKILY the hospital just forgave all but about $5k worth. But the followup medical costs that keep him alive causes them to go into a massive debt hole and file for bankruptcy every 7 years now