"Surviving The Cost of Insulin: 30 Million Americans Need the Drug, but Many Can't Afford It" - Narmeen Choudhury
According to the American Diabetes Association, approximately 25 percent of diabetic patients in the United States take less insulin than they are prescribed. Soaring prices has even forced diabetes patients to travel to Canada or Mexico for the drug, purchase it on the black market and in some extreme cases skip taking insulin altogether. This can lead to long-term health complications and even be deadly. David Lam, MD, medical director of the Clinical Diabetes Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said he sees the problem firsthand and says it crosses all socio-economic lines. Dr. Lam added, “What upsets me the most? Patients who were doing wonderfully and then out of embarrassment, maybe fear, they never tell me that in the last three months they haven’t been able to get their insulin. Diabetes went from well controlled to uncontrolled.”
— David W. Lam, MD, Medical Director, Clinical Diabetes Institute, Assistant Professor, Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai