Opinion: Listen: The ‘underground market’ for insulin and diabetes supplies

Some people have trouble paying for insulin, forcing them to ration it or go without. Grassroots communities on social media have emerged to help.

It’s a sad reality that people with diabetes know all too well: The price of insulin, a medicine they depend on to stay alive, has skyrocketed. Some people have trouble paying for insulin, forcing them to ration it or go without, which can be deadly.

Alina Bills was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 4, and can’t remember life without it. Now age 26, she wrote a First Opinion essay about having to turn to social media to crowdsource insulin when she unexpectedly ran out and an extra vial would have cost her nearly $400 out of pocket. In this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” I talk with Alina, who has worked as an #Insulin4All advocate, about the systemic problems that people with diabetes have paying for insulin and other supplies, the grassroots communities that have emerged to help, and long-term solutions for the problem.

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