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"Turning 26 Is A Potential Death Sentence For People With Type 1 Diabetes In America
Forced off their parents’ insurance and faced with high insulin prices, young adults dangerously ration, stockpile, and turn to the black market for the medication they need to stay alive.
On the day Jathan Laverty turned 26, he was working at a Columbus, Ohio, coffee shop and freelancing as a corporate event technician, hoping to get a foot in the door of the event planning industry.
This birthday turned that search for a full-time job into something urgent.
Laverty has Type 1 diabetes, and as of that day in 2017, he was no longer eligible for coverage under his parents’ health insurance.
He found himself needing medication to live that he could not afford.
“It’s a human necessity for me,” Laverty, now 28, told BuzzFeed News. “It’s my life or death every time I do or don’t take insulin.”
Laverty faces a health care problem unique to many millennials with Type 1 diabetes who’ve been booted off their parents’ stable health insurance.
The price of insulin, the drug that keeps them alive, tripled in the US from 2002 to 2013 — and a recent study found that, from 2012 to 2016, its average annual cost increased from $3,200 to $5,900.
That’s an impossible price tag for a generation still feeling the effects of the 2008 financial crisis and saddled with massive student loan debt and increasing housing costs.
Studies show that US millennials are far worse off financially than previous generations, with an average net worth below $8,000.
The result is that these young adults are rationing,
stockpiling,
and turning to the black market for the medication they need to stay alive —
incredibly risky and desperate measures that could result in long-term harm or death.
(Emphasis is mine.)
About 1.25 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, a disorder in which the immune system attacks the pancreas and interferes with the body’s ability to absorb energy from food.
People with Type 1 diabetes are dependent on multiple types of insulin to survive because the disease shuts down the pancreas’s ability to produce the chemical, which regulates the amount of sugar in the blood.
Without insulin, cells cannot absorb sugar, and the body is forced to rapidly break down fat cells to use as a backup fuel source. This dehydrates the body, turns the blood acidic, and leads to a life-threatening complication called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).
Most people with Type 1 diabetes take at least two types of insulin: a long-acting type, taken daily, that constantly releases insulin, and a short-acting or rapid-acting type, taken either before or after eating.
The amount of insulin a person with Type 1 diabetes needs varies dramatically depending on age, weight, food eaten, exercise, illness, stress, and, for women, whether they are menstruating or ovulating.
In fact, many endocrinologists will over prescribe insulin so that patients have enough for emergency situations.
All that medication is pricey. Laverty said that in 2017, his insulin cost him approximately $950 a month without his parents’ insurance coverage.
So he began to ration.
He gave himself only what he could afford to buy, the bare minimum he needed to function.
“I was taking half of my medication that I needed to be taking,” he said.
Laverty began skipping meals so he wouldn’t have to use a dose of his fast-acting insulin, and he lowered the amount of insulin in every injection he gave himself.
The effects were immediate. His energy levels dropped, leaving him irritable and fatigued and in a constant state of discomfort. He couldn’t sleep, he was always thirsty, and he constantly had to urinate.
“It definitely affected my ability to function,” he said. He lived like this for four months until he found full-time employment at a company that offered full medical benefits.
This sort of rationing can have serious long-term effects for people with Type 1 diabetes, Simeon Taylor, a University of Maryland School of Medicine diabetes researcher and professor, told BuzzFeed News.
“You can probably avoid rapid death,” he said. “But you open yourself up to long-term complications like blindness, kidney failure, amputations. If you’re not treating yourself optimally, you’re also at greater risk for shorter-term crises.”
For Nicole Smith-Holt’s son Alec Smith, the situation was deadly.
Smith died of DKA in 2017, one month after turning 26 and being kicked off his mother’s insurance.
He couldn’t afford insulin and had been rationing what little he had left.
(Emphasis is mine.)
In August, Smith-Holt testified before the US Senate about her son’s story and what she called the “crisis of pharmaceutical drug prices.” Smith-Holt told BuzzFeed News that she has heard from “far too many” people with stories like her son’s.
A December study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that 1 in 4 people with diabetes have rationed their insulin because of high costs.
... Aging out of parental health insurance has always been an issue for young Americans with chronic health conditions. But ever since the 2010 Affordable Care Act allowed young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26, there has been a universal deadline.
Louis Philipson, director of the University of Chicago Kovler Diabetes Center, told BuzzFeed News that he sees many young adult patients with Type 1 diabetes living in fear of this deadline.
“They’re on their parents’ insurance now, but some are in the gig economy, moving from one job to the next as they start their lives.
They may not have a job with insurance that covers their insulin, or their job may have zero insurance, or it’s a job that’s under insured with high deductibles,” he said.
The rising cost of deductibles — the annual amount that a patient must pay out of pocket before their insurance plan begins to pay — is an issue for all Americans.
... Because being kicked off your parents’ insurance is considered a “qualifying life event,” young adults are given a 60-day special enrollment period after their birthday to sign up for new insurance. But some young adults with Type 1 diabetes find it difficult to afford their medicine even with government-sponsored insurance.
“I looked into it,” Jathan Laverty said about going on government insurance. “But it was going to be so stupid expensive that it wasn’t worth it.”
He said that the plans he was able to find on the exchange had such high deductibles that he felt he would likely find a full-time job with benefits before he met his deductible.
In the interim, he would be paying list price for insulin during that in-between period with or without government insurance.
“The first month [of medication] alone could be $1,000 or even more,” Philipson said. “It breaks budgets, it forces people into untenable situations: You have to choose between rent and insulin.
“Turning 26 — there’s a looming fear that you’ll be spending $500 a month, $5,000 to $6,000 a year, to stay alive,” Philipson said.
“This isn’t an option. Type 1 diabetes is a fatal disease if you don’t have insulin.”
The deadline is approaching for Allie Marotta, a 25-year-old living in Brooklyn.
“I’m a freelance theater person; there’s no insurance there,” Marotta told BuzzFeed News.
Marotta is planning to either get a job with good health insurance or buy insurance through the government. However, she is “preparing to be uninsured for a period of time, since both of those things take time.”
So with the help of her endocrinologist, she has begun stockpiling insulin.
(Emphasis is mine.)
... Even though she currently has insurance, Marotta still regularly rations insulin. She regularly buys only one of the two types she needs, because she can’t afford the copays for her multiple required medications, doctor’s appointments, and a battery of tests that accompany each visit to her endocrinologist.
“I’ll pick up my short-acting before I pick up my long-acting because at least you can do emergency coverage,” she said. “If you’re only going to have one, it makes sense to do the short one. It’s just not ideal because you don’t have that baseline [of insulin], so the slightest thing can affect you and your blood sugar goes up.”
It’s dicey, but Marotta said she’s spending close to half her income on student loans and rent. She doesn’t have a choice.
“For me, rationing is literally just because I don’t have the $20 to pick it up today,” she said.
The list price for a monthly supply of Marotta’s long-acting insulin, according to a receipt she provided to BuzzFeed News, is $740.99. Her current copay is $10.
People with Type 1 diabetes also need to pay for multiple expensive supplies to help control their disease.
Patients who can’t afford them cut corners by not regularly testing their blood sugar levels, relying instead on their body’s response to determine how much insulin they need. They also reuse one-time-use medical supplies, such as lancets that prick fingers to test blood sugar and needles to inject insulin, despite the risk of infection.
“That’s a huge part of rationing that people don’t talk about, and a lot of people do it,” Marotta said.
Jathan Laverty said that although he is no longer forced to ration his insulin, he regularly rations supplies to keep costs down. He said that he often reuses a lancet “for weeks or months,” until it’s so dull that it no longer breaks the skin.
“This becomes increasingly more unpleasant and leaves a larger hole, but it saves me a lot of money,” he said.
He added that he is supposed to use a new needle tip for his insulin pen each time but limits himself to one per day because it got “crazy expensive.”
He estimated that he doses himself between five and eight times a day, with each dose becoming more painful.
Before he switched to pens, he would reuse syringes and needles to inject himself with insulin.
He shared a photo with BuzzFeed News of a used needle that bent and broke off inside his body during a regular injection.
Sometimes, because of circumstances beyond their control, people with Type 1 diabetes are forced to turn to risky options. In 2017, Julia Wyrzuc, 24, of Linden, New Jersey, was left to scramble after a clerical error left her family uninsured for five months.
She had a small surplus of insulin stored up and was also able to obtain samples from a family friend who worked at an endocrinology office.
However, as it became clear that resolving the insurance issue would take months, not weeks, she had to find a more permanent solution.
In July 2017, she turned to the black market.
She purchased 10 vials of insulin for $1,000 “from a guy who had really good insurance,” she said. It wasn’t a “terrible” price and was cheaper than what Wyrzuc would have paid over the counter.
She was using insulin from this stockpile when, a few months later, she went into “severe DKA.”
... Wyrzuc was hospitalized, spending five days in the intensive care unit. Her doctors speculated that she had taken a “bad batch” of insulin that had possibly overheated at some point.
Fortunately, her parents had resolved the insurance issue “literally two weeks” before this happened, and Wyrzuc was able to resume her regular treatment regimen.
Even when young patients with diabetes secure their own health insurance, they can face problems.
Hannah Sumner, 26, of Soperton, Georgia, voluntarily switched off her parents’ insurance before she was required to, which she described as “the biggest mistake of her life.”
“I got a job that offered insurance and I wanted to do it on my own,” she told BuzzFeed News. “I have a 6-year-old daughter. I was trying to be more of an adult.”
Her plan through the bank where she works has great coverage — for everything except diabetes. Her insurance company also recently stopped covering her brand of insulin, forcing her to switch to a brand it deemed equivalent. The new insulin, she said, makes her sick, but she cannot afford to switch back to her old one and has to cope with the symptoms.
Sumner said her pharmacist allows her to put the bulk of her deductible, which she said is around $225 to $250, on a charge account at the start of the year so she can afford her insulin. She pays the account monthly, but there are times her finances are stretched so thin, she can’t even afford the copayment.
“There are times of the month when I might not have $50,” she said.
On those months, her pharmacist, an “amazing” family friend who has known her since she was a baby, lets her add her copayment to her charge account as well.
Even with this “incredibly lucky” arrangement with her pharmacist, Sumner said she has rationed in the past for financial reasons and is currently rationing so that she can go to her job without feeling sick from her new insulin.
... Jathan Laverty said that learning he had Type 1 diabetes at age 21 forced him to change his entire life. He went to school for theatrical lighting design and dreamed of one day working on a Broadway tour. But he changed his plan and now works in corporate events for the steady insurance coverage.
“I realized I had to have health insurance to stay alive, that I had to change my career so that I have health insurance. A roadie doesn’t always have that,” he said.
Without insurance, Laverty would have paid nearly $8,900 for his insulin in 2018, according to receipts he provided to BuzzFeed News. Including his $1,200 deductible, his out-of-pocket cost for his yearly insulin was $1,654.96.
... “Obviously it sucks,” Allie Marotta said. “Being postgrad, figuring out your career — all of that is crazy to begin with, and then adding the layer of worry about medical stuff and having it be a life-or-death situation, literally a life-or-death situation all the time. It shouldn’t be this hard. You see other countries doing it and it’s not this hard. There’s no reason for this to be the way that it is.” ●
Focused Thought in 30 seconds
( Image courtesy of Occupy Democrats on Facebook )
Focused Action in 30 seconds
THIS is a great thread, see an excerpt here then read and retweet it below!:
“ … 29/ What the left never understands is: we need to stop approaching elections like the goddamned debate team, and start approaching it like the right does, like the cheerleading squad...
30/ The right knows psychology and we know public policy and sociology...great. The latter does not win elections…”
... 34/ Not to say the House shouldn't impeach over that stuff. They should. But the 2020 candidates must craft a message that is not about that. Trumpism is the threat to America, more than Putin. And Putin didn't birth Trumpism. Conservative White America did… … “
You can read and/or retweet Wise's Tweet here
Focused Point of Interest
"Why We’re Moving Forward With Impeachment
Our Constitution requires it. Our democracy depends on it.
... Three months ago, Special Counsel Robert Mueller completed his investigation into Russian election interference and President Donald Trump’s obstruction of justice.
When the redacted report finally became available to Congress and the American people, it painted a damning picture of a corrupt president who welcomed and encouraged an attack on our country, capitalized on it, and then tried to cover up what he had done.
During his press conference announcing the end of his investigation, Mueller pointed out that the Department of Justice believes “the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal-justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.” He was referring, without using the word, to impeachment—a process by which the U.S. House indicts, and the Senate convicts, a sitting president.
Congress has patiently tried to work within traditional means to get to the bottom of this extraordinary situation.
Committees have called witnesses and requested evidence, only to be stonewalled by Trump and his associates.
The president’s refusal to comply with the Constitution, statutes, and established congressional oversight defies the rule of law.
Mueller’s testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees was a watershed moment.
At this point, it is up to Congress to act on the evidence of multiple counts of obstruction of justice committed by the president, and to continue our investigation into whether he has committed other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Despite assertions to the contrary by the president and his allies, the special counsel’s report and testimony are not the end of our investigations.
We have now filed a petition in court to obtain the grand-jury documents referenced in the special counsel’s report.
In that filing, we have made clear that we will utilize our Article I powers to obtain the additional underlying evidence, as well as enforce subpoenas for key witness testimony, and broaden our investigations to include conflicts of interest and financial misconduct.
While many people believe that beginning an impeachment investigation can begin only with a vote of the full House of Representatives, this is not true. Article I authorizes the House Judiciary Committee to begin this process.
As members of the House Judiciary Committee, we understand the gravity of this moment that we find ourselves in.
We wake up every morning with the understanding of the oath that binds us as members of Congress, and the trust that our constituents placed in us to uphold that oath.
We will move forward with the impeachment process. Our investigation will seriously examine all the evidence as we consider whether to bring articles of impeachment or other remedies under our Article I powers.
Our Constitution requires it. Our democracy depends on it.
JUL 26, 2019
Vice Chair of the House Judiciary Committee
U.S. representative from Rhode Island
U.S. representative from Washington
U.S. representative from Texas"
You can read more here
Focused Monthly Inspiration
( #itsNovember2020Now )
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THE next Democratic Party 2020 Presidential Nomination Debate will be held July 30 & 31, 2019
And the best candidate for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination is Kamala Harris, IMO...
You can find more information on Kamala Harris here
You can follow her on facebook here
You can follow her on Twitter here
You can follow her on Instagram here
→ Some Direct sources & resources for Democrats:
* ( My personal favored and most informative follows are also shared here, below, with the understanding that readers will always apply their own critical thinking to any information provided anywhere by anyone. #StrongerTogether does not share sources of information lightly but -- no one is perfect! -- so always #DistrustAndVerify -- even if it's me. I am using a "star" rating that is strictly based on my situational experience with the work of the media personality specifically in relation to issues of interest to me. )
Democratic Party Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, representative of The People at home & abroad while the President of the United States is MIA...
There is no better way to get your information than to #Go2TheSource
You can find the Speaker's website here
You can find the Speaker's Twitter feed here
You can find the Speaker's Facebook Page here
The Democratic Party Website
Also, NOT exactly a Democratic Party specific source under a GOP majority but a good place to hear and to watch speeches & hearings directly, i.e. #Go2TheSource C-SPAN
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→ Some of my favorite, most active organizations:
(Full disclosure, I am a member!)
"Women are already the majority. Now Let's build a Supermajority.
Women are on the cusp of becoming the most powerful force in America. But to fundamentally transform this country, we need to work together. That’s where Supermajority comes in.
LET’S GET ORGANIZED
We’re building an inclusive, national membership of women who are connected, empowered, and taking action—from increasing their level of civic engagement and advocacy to voting in record numbers.
If we can build women’s collective power in this moment, we can lift up an agenda that addresses our needs and hold candidates and elected officials accountable. ... "
You can learn more here
"Meet the people behind the politicians.
A new podcast introducing you to the staffers and strategists that silently shape our politics from behind the scenes" here
You can email your two Senators and your Representative in Congress in one email here
"Postcards to Voters are friendly, handwritten reminders from volunteers to targeted voters giving Democrats a winning edge in close, key races coast to coast.
What started on March 11, 2017 with sharing 5 addresses apiece to 5 volunteers on Facebook...
Now, we consist of over 20,000+ volunteers in every state (including Alaska and Hawaii) who have written close to 3 million postcards to voters in over 100+ key, close elections."
You can find Postcards to Voters here
Town Hall Project empowers constituents across the country to have face-to-face conversations with their elected representatives. We are campaign veterans and first time volunteers. We come from a diversity of backgrounds and live across the country. We share progressive values and believe strongly in civic engagement. We research every district and state for public events with members of Congress. Then we share our findings to promote participation in the democratic process.
This movement is diverse, open source, and powered by citizens. We are proud to be a part of it.
You can find Town Hall Project here
"Born from conversations between Governor Howard Dean and Secretary Hillary Clinton in the aftermath of the 2016 election, Onward Together was established to lend support to leaders — particularly young leaders — kicking off projects and founding new organizations to fight for our shared progressive values." here
Organizing for America and the Democratic National Redistricting Committee have merged in "All On The Line":
"Barack Obama Throws All His Weight Behind ‘Issue Of Singular Importance’
The former president’s activist group Organizing for Action has folded into a fight to end gerrymandering."
On Thursday he announced that the progressive Organizing for Action group, which formed out of the pieces of Obama’s re-election campaign, would be folded into the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
In a Medium post, Obama called gerrymandered maps “undemocratic” and “unrepresentative,” saying they have “too often stood in the way of change.”
... The merger will create a “joint force focused on this issue of singular importance,” Obama said, per The Atlantic. ... "
You can read more here
" Since #StandOnEveryCorner has grown, it’s become a stand by all of us to protect our democracy from corruption and treason...A stand not at your State Capitol, but in your own backyard. Not once every few months, but as often as you can here "
→ Fact checking organizations courtesy of the Society of Professional Journalists
in alphabetical order...
→ Some of my favorite, most informative
follows on Twitter include:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC
⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones
→ Some of my favorite, highly credible media -- at the moment:
→ Some of my favorite Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:
📺📺📺 Rachel Maddow on MSNBC
Co-hosted program: Velshi & Ruhle on MSNBC
→ Some of my favorite media/panelists -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:
✅✅✅✅ Joan Walsh national affairs correspondent for The Nation; CNN political contributor
✅✅✅ Heidi Przybyla USA TODAY Senior Political Reporter
✅✅✅✅ Jennifer Rubin Conservative blogger at @ WashingtonPost's Right Turn,MSNBC contributor
✅✅✅ Natasha Bertrand Staff writer @ The Atlantic covering national security & the
Intel community. @ NBCNews/@ MSNBC contributor
→ Some of my favorite legal analysts in the context of Putin attacked America to install Trump investigations, primarily seen on MSNBC:
→ Some of my favorite Democrat Party Leaders to follow on Twitter, not in elected office but proving knowledge & experience are positives & not negatives are:
Former First Lady Michelle Obama
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Former Labor Secretary/Today's DNC Chair Tom Perez
Note: I rarely get involved in primary races -- outside of those in my own area and unless there is a glaring reason that can not be ignored, I support Democratic Party nominees in general elections. I don't support bashing Democrats.
→ PARTY Informational
(Full disclosure, I am a life-long, registered Democrat!)
"To Whom It May Concern: By authority of the Democratic National Committee, the National Convention of the Democratic Party is hereby scheduled to convene on July 13-16, 2020 in TBD at an hour to be announced, to select nominees for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States of America, to adopt and promulgate a platform and to take such other actions with respect to such other matters as the Convention may deem advisable. ... "
You can read more here
"PREAMBLE We, the Democrats of the United States of America, united in common purpose, hereby rededicate ourselves to the principles which have historically sustained our Party. Recognizing that the vitality of the Nation's political institutions has been the foundation of its enduring strength, we acknowledge that a political party which wishes to lead must listen to those it would lead, a party which asks for the people's trust must prove that it trusts the people and a party which hopes to call forth the best the Nation can achieve must embody the best of the Nation's heritage and traditions. What we seek for our Nation, we hope for all people: individual freedom in the framework of a just society, political freedom in the framework of meaningful participation by all citizens. Bound by the United States Constitution, aware that a party must be responsive to be worthy of responsibility, we pledge ourselves to open, honest endeavor and to the conduct of public affairs in a manner worthy of a society of free people. Under God, and for these ends and upon these principles, we do establish and adopt this Charter of the Democratic Party of the United States of America."
You can read more here
What is the CPD? The Commission on Presidential Debates (the “CPD”) is a private, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization. As a 501(c)(3) organization, it is eligible under federal law so serve as a debate sponsor. The CPD's primary mission is to ensure, for the benefit of the American electorate, that general election debates are held every four years between and among the leading candidates for the offices of President and Vice President of the United State. The CPD is an independent organization. It is not controlled by any political party or outside organization and it does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates for parties. It receives no funding from the government or any political party, political actions committee or candidate. The CPD has sponsored general election presidential debates in every election since 1988. Although its plans for 2020 are in the developmental stage, it looks forward to bringing high quality, educational debates to the electorate in 2020 ...
You can read more here
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(Linked) "...is our 2016 platform...a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.
It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."
Owned, Created and Curated by Gail Mountain, this blog is often gently edited and/or excerpted for quick reading, with occasional personal commentary in the form of the written word and/or in the form of emphasis noted. Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!
( * As a privately owned blog, I reserve the right to edit or remove inappropriate comments such as hate, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, anti-Semitism, spam, advertising or personal/abusive attacks on other users.)
A long time Democratic Party activist, Gail Mountain is a former community organizer, journalist & personal planning coach with a focus on single moms working toward careers able to support them & their families, while working toward changing the systems that once served them through leadership training. She is a former Affordable Health Care for America Act advocate (2009!); a Hillary supporter who volunteered as a Grassroots Tweeter for Hillary, a Women's Outreach for Hillary member; an OFA Truth Team member; & a DNC Factivist member...currently a media influencer, digital activist/strategist, blogger and head of curation, editor and co-Founder of The People for Kamala Harris; an editor for Progress for Democrats on Facebook; a member of a closed group supporting Speaker Pelosi & her agenda, a member of Supermajority and a volunteer for Kamala Harris for the 2020 Democratic Party Nomination for President of the United States.
You can follow her Blog
at https://networkstrongertogether.blogspot.com & you can follow her on Twitter at GKMTNtwits
( find her on Twitter
*** My updated ebook is coming soon ... :
"How to Influence Media in Real Time!"
What's in the book?:
( My updated ebook, "How to Influence Media in Real Time," will be ready soon. It will include updated examples of the conversations I have with some of my “media friends” and some updated indications that media can hear us! If you have left a donation toward my effort to help Democrats win in 2020, I will send you an updated copy as soon as it is ready. New donors who leaves a name and an email on my GoFundMe Page will get one as soon as it is ready to go! Thanking you in advance for your interest. I hope you will join me in helping media be the best they can be -- by being a media influencer, too, in your own way and at your own pace. )
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See the League of Women Voters website:
Vote411 here
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