My name is Blythe and I will be 26 in August. I’m a very happy newlywed and live with my husband in Chandler, Arizona. At age 7, I survived a life threatening health scare that landed me in the hospital. Doctors eventually diagnosed me with Type 1 Diabetes. I was very fortunate that my family and my entire small hometown rallied to support me growing up.
After I turn 26 this summer, I will no longer be eligible to remain on my parents insurance program. Changes like this are terrifying because of the high price of insulin. My husband took a job he is less than passionate about just so we could afford Humalog, the drug that’s keeping me alive each day.
Humalog has been on the market since 1996, when it was only $20 a vial. I recently broke a vial of insulin and had to pay for a replacement. Imagine my surprise and dismay when I discovered that the price had increased to over $350. I need 2 vials a month — $700.00 worth of insulin.
If anything were to happen to my husband or his job, it would be almost impossible to afford this medicine that’s keeping me alive. It’s wrong that so many have to live close to financial ruin, with so much uncertainty and fear, just so drugmakers can make huge profits off of a common, decades old drug I and many would die without.
I want to keep celebrating birthdays. I want to have children one day. I want to keep having date nights and go fishing with my husband and our two dogs. I need lawmakers to help me and lower the price of my life-saving drug.
