I was 9 years old blinking in confusion and fear as a doctor stuck a needle into my arm claiming that soon my blood sugar would return to a stable state and all I needed to do was stay strong. Just for a couple of seconds. One second passed. Then two, and I looked up thinking I was fixed. I was normal again. 

Here I am, years later wincing as a click of a needle inserts the same liquid it did when I was 9 into my arm. As it has everyday since then. 

A vial of novolog insulin costs over 350 dollars. 1 vial of insulin, considered to be one of the most expensive liquids in the world. That’s 10 milliliters of a clear, mildly smelling liquid that keeps me and millions of type 1 diabetics alive. Now add on the cost of all the other supplies needed to ensure that our health can be maintained; pumps, pens, medical devices, glucagon, blood and ketone testing strips and various other necessities needed so that type 1 diabetics can survive like everyone else. 

According to USA Today “A study by the American Diabetes Association found the typical family pays $7,510 each year in health care expenses for each child with diabetes.” This is the norm, something that so many people are expected to put up with and while technology and life has improved over the years, hope for a cure seems like a fantasy.  As Ms. Hepner, a Type 1 Diabetic who was the filmmaker for a documentary centered around research into diabetes “The Human Trial” puts it; “The cure is five years away’ has become a joke in the diabetes community.”

What’s the use of extremely expensive technology if the majority of people can’t afford it? Is a disease that kills millions supposed to be resolved by the idea that a cure is coming while medical companies take advantage of a patient's dependency on their products?

The fact of the matter is that while we depend on big companies like Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Dexcom and Omnipod to ease our lives as we wait for a cure, these companies depend on us for profit. They depend on us for their gain. So when a cure finally blesses Type 1 Diabetics what exactly will happen? Will they allow their profits to dwindle as people seek comfort in a much awaited normal life? Or will the very corporations that keep people alive and breathing be the same ones to hide away or stand between those customers and a life of freedom from the costly expenses and treatments that me and millions of Type 1 Diabetics have dealt with for so long? 

Sources: 

Alltucker, Ken. “A Billing Dispute Means a Mom Must Pay Nearly $1,000 a Month for Her Son’s Diabetes Care.” USA TODAY, 27 Mar. 2023, www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/03/27/diabetes-treatment-care-cost/11479609002/. Accessed 12 Apr. 2023.

Jacobs, Andrew. “The Long, Long Wait for a Diabetes Cure.” The New York Times, 9 Aug. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/health/diabetes-cure-type-1.html. Accessed 12 Apr. 2023.