More than a million Americans ration insulin due to the high cost of the drug [View all]
Insulin rights activists and those who live with diabetes are calling for meaningful action to address the high costs of insulin in the United States as a new study shows the widespread habit of rationing the life-saving medicine.
Diabetes is currently the seventh-leading cause of death in the US, though a 2017 study suggests the number of Americans dying from diabetes is much higher due to diabetes frequently being overlooked in causes of death. Humans require insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas to regulate glucose in the blood, to live.
A study published on 18 October in the Annals of Internal Medicine by researchers at Harvard Medical School, the City University of New York’s Hunter College and Public Citizen, found that 1.3 million Americans rationed insulin due to the high costs of insulin in 2021. The staggering number represents an estimated 16.5% of the US population with diabetes.
The study found insulin rationing was most commonly reported by those without health insurance coverage and individuals under the age of 65 not eligible for Medicare. Black insulin users were more likely to report rationing insulin, at 23.2%.
Angela Lautner of Kentucky has lived with type 1 diabetes for 22 years.
“I’ve been on Eli Lilly’s Humalog insulin since 2000, nothing has changed in that vial, not how I use it, nothing has changed except for the price,” said Lautner. “The instant, the very instant, that I can’t afford insulin, death is literally staring me in the face and I would die within 24 hours or be in the emergency room on my way out without insulin, every single human would.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/01/insulin-diabetes-drugs-rationing
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