Hello, my name is Joe Solowiejczyk, and I am a diabetes educator and nurse that has been living with type 1 diabetes, allergies and chronic kidney disease stage 3. I have had diabetes for over 50 years now and have been reliant on insulin, insulin pump supplies, continuous glucose monitor sensors, Zyrtec and Ryaltris. 

Although most of my life I’ve worked and had health insurance through work, there have been several times when I was laid off or voluntarily decided to work on my own. During these times, I’ve had to pay for my own health insurance which usually costs $750 a month. That may seem like a lot but compared to what it would have cost me without insurance to pay for my medications, that would have been more astronomical! When on my own, I’ve had to pay between $350 to $450 a vial of insulin and approximately $500 for sensors and supplies. The reality was frightening. Not only did I have to take care of a chronic illness, which by itself is exhausting work to prevent complications and achieve optimal metabolic control, but I was always worried during those times that I wouldn’t have enough money to purchase life-sustaining medications. 

At times, when I wasn’t able to afford private health insurance I would have to travel to Canada to buy insulin at around $35 a vial. It was horrifying: The thought that I might die because I didn’t have enough money to buy supplies for a disease I didn’t ask for! It certainly didn’t help that it caused recurrent thoughts of death, dying of painful complications and even had thoughts from time to time of just giving up. 

Based on my personal health experience and the insane fact that a vial of insulin in the U.S. costs $450 and in Canada it’s only $35, makes me an advocate for lower cost prescription drugs. There is enough money on the planet to take care of everybody. I believe that it’s not a question of not enough money but how that money is distributed and who gets it. I believe that we are all here to be with one another and to care for one another – as individuals and as a species. There is a problem of GREED and ALLOCATION. Not taking care of all implies that only a few are entitled to live. If we don’t take care of all of us, none of us will survive. 

Our voices need to be heard and the system has to change!