It's Pretty Self-Explanatory Once You Get Into It
31 May 2022Only a small fraction of people are ever going to have to endure this disease. For that, I am truly grateful.
For people like me, who have good health insurance, the cost of the medications (and the devices and the doctor’s) bills are the least of our concerns. But for many others without this basic security, it is often the only concern.
When I was 24 years old, I thought my body was invincible. I thought I could take any punch or survive any illness with impunity. But I was wrong.
On my birthday that year, I walked into the doctor’s office for a routine physical, wondering how great my blood tests would be, and walked out wondering what I had done to deserve such a painful verdict: “You’ll live. But each day will be it’s own hardship.”
The truth is, type 1 diabetes can afflict anyone. It doesn’t truly discriminate based on age, lifestyle, or how much you actually deserve it. It can upend a life, like it did mine, or afflict it before it really even got started.
I would be long dead without access to insulin. There is nothing I can or could have done to prevent my need for this medication. I am so fortunate to be able to have continual access to it. Without insulin, my lifespan is measured in hours - not really even in days. Many around the world do not have this luxury.
However, I live in one of the few countries in the developed world that does not guarantee this access to all of its citizens. I am so fortunate to have excellent health insurance that (more often than not) covers the cost of this medication such that it is affordable to me.
But there are many others in this country who do not have this simple luxury. I never imagined that in the year 2022, in the wealthiest country on the planet, in the United States of America, that I would have to stand here today and explain that not everyone in our country can afford a life-saving medication that has existed for a full century.
For the 18 months that followed my first diagnosis, I took a few pills each day and waited for my body to cease functioning properly on its own. With significant anxiety, I waited for the day that I would need countless injections and innumerable fingersticks to stay healthy. 18 months is quite a while, but eventually my time came.
During the first week that I needed insulin to keep myself alive, I walked into a pharmacy to purchase my first prescription. I knew it was going to be expensive, but I didn’t really know what to expect. I was scared of what was happening to my body. I felt sick. I never needed medication this way before. I paid the pharmacist $60 and asked her how to use it. “Don’t worry,” she said. “It’s pretty self explanatory once you get into it.
When I got home, I looked more closely at the receipt. I had paid $60, but the total cost of the prescription was $3,685.99. In 3 months, I was expected to return to the same pharmacy and buy the same amount for the same price. Had I not had insurance, that cost could have ruined me, paying it over and over again, for the rest of my life.
Sure, I have learned to manage my blood sugars and dose my insulin with confidence. But the idea that I would have had to pay nearly four thousand dollars on that day to save my live with a drug that is one hundred years old will never be self-explanatory to me.