Stop Insulin Price Gouging
Soaring insulin prices have diabetic patients scrambling to afford this live-saving drug
Insulin has been around for many, many years yet the price for insulin has more than tripled in the last decade, leaving diabetic patients scrambling to figure out how to pay for this drug that keeps them alive. Much has been written lately about the soaring costs of EpiPens and, while I am sympathetic to this situation, we cannot ignore what is happening to the ridiculous price increases that have been happening to insulin. Over 26 million Americans rely on insulin to control their diabetes. My daughter, a Type 1 diabetic, cannot live without insulin. Type 1 is an autoimmune disease that typically strikes in childhood or adolescence where the body attacks its own insulin-producing cells and shuts down the body's ability to produce insulin. Type 1 diabetics are insulin-dependent for life, or until such time a cure is found. One of the big problems that I find is that all insulin in the world is produced by 3 companies. The insulin they produce is patented and every time one of these companies makes a slight change to the insulin they apply for new patents, which keeps any other companies from coming in and trying to compete. Generics are simply not available due to these patents. What is also very frustrating is that these drugs only cost this much in the United States. The same drug in other countries are sold at a fraction of the cost. It's time for some serious reforms, not just for insulin, but across the board reform of how we manage prescription medication in this country. Please support this petition to stop the price gouging and set in place some reform that will give Americans some relief for these much needed, life-saving drugs.
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