Wisconsin Public Television has a broadcast worth viewing about the financial challenges of living with Type 1 diabetes. A profile on a Wisconsin woman, Julia, notes that in the U.S., a three-month supply of insulin costs a patient $1,800, some 6 to 10 times higher than the cost of insulin just across the Canadian border. “We do not have a choice. We have to buy it, or we die,” said Julia. Her story has rallied more than 50,000 people to sign a petition to make insulin more affordable in Wisconsin.
A nationwide movement is building against outrageous profiteering by insulin manufacturers — **insulin prices have become so expensive that an estimated 1 in 4 people with diabetes skip or ration their doses, and many have gotten sick or died as a direct result of these costs. Petitions have been circulating to cap the price of insulin. Please visit Change.org to sign petitions in Wisconsin, Georgia, Indiana, and West Virginia. Public actions have already reduced prices in states like Colorado, and activity is expected to pick up in other states as well.
The three largest pharmaceutical companies, Eli Lilly, Sanofi, and Novo Nordisk, have made more than $12 billion in profits in 2014, largely from increased prices on insulin. Sign this petition to Sanofi to Make Insulin Affordable.
For reference, the cost to manufacture a bottle of insulin is approximately $6, while the same bottles of current insulins sell for around $35 in Canada, Japan, and Australia. Please sign and get mobilized in your state. In the coming 2020 election, we also encourage you to vote only for candidates who support some form of health care insurance for all, and against anyone who wants to take away health care from people like us who happen to have a pre-existing condition.