Hello Everyone!
My name is Arya Saravanan, and I am currently a senior at Basis Ahwatukee high school. As the elder brother of a T1 Diabetic, Diabetes has been an issue that has touched me immensely in the past few years of high school.
For my senior project, I am aiming to interview 5-7 parents of Diabetic minors in the U.S regarding how insulin costs have recently affected their families. I do not have enough participants yet, so I sincerely request anyone that is interested help me in my study by answering a few questions. Each interview should take no longer than 15 minutes. It can be done preferably over phone, but I am willing to do it over text message on any social media website or over an online video call (in case you want to see me) instead).
If you are willing to take an interview, please reach out to me at arya.saran177@gmail.com, or respond to this post, so that we are able to schedule and quickly conduct an interview.
This is a tremendous help!
I’m not a parent of a T1, so I can’t help you out there. But I see that you are in Phoenix. I can provide you with some background information for your paper.
“High insulin prices explained with Dr. Swapna Reddy” (2024)
“Dr. Banting’s Miracle Drug” (2018)
“Pay or Die”
This is a modern movie produced by parents of a T1 diabetic in MN. You can sign up for a free Paramount Plus account to watch it. Just be sure to cancel the subscription so you don’t get charged.
" The High Cost of Insulin in the United States: An Urgent Call to Action"
This is the first lawsuit in the country related to this:
This is the result of that lawsuit:
Colorado also has insulin copay caps. So does Medicare (Medicare is insurance for old people and that is Federal law, as opposed to State law).
What is going on today?
Today, a lot of those state efforts to make insulin cheaper have moved from individual states and state law into the federal government. Why? Because the US markets might be messed up. People claim that the drug markets are monopolies. Back in olden times, the US government fought with the railroads for being monopolies. So, the federal government has decided to go fight with the drug manufacturers, like they fought with the railroads in olden times. Here is evidence of that. It gets a little complicated, so you might have questions: FTC Sues Prescription Drug Middlemen for Artificially Inflating Insulin Drug Prices | Federal Trade Commission
When you hear them use words like “monopoly” or “antitrust,” that is the government fighting with large companies about ‘price fixing’ insulin. The government says those companies are intentionally increasing prices and decreasing competition in the markets in ways that harm the markets and individual consumers. They are making those claims now with health insurers like Optum (which is the same company as United Health Group in Minneapolis) because of the price of insulin. It’s the same way that the government fought with the big railroad companies in olden times.
