Insulin’s high cost leads to deadly rationing

This story is from Kaiser Health News Diabetic ketoacidosis is a terrible way to die. It’s what happens when you don’t have enough insulin. Your blood sugar gets so high that your blood becomes highly acidic, your cells dehydrate, and your body stops functioning. Nicole Smith-Holt lost her son to diabetic ketoacidosis, three days before his payday, because he couldn’t afford his insulin. “It shouldn’t have happened,” Smith-Holt said, looking down at her son’s death certificate on her dining room table in Richfield, Minn. “That cause of death of diabetic ketoacidosis should have never happened.” The price of insulin in the U.S. has more than doubled since 2012 alone. That’s put the lifesaving hormone out of reach for some people with diabetes, like Smith-Holt’s son Alec Raeshawn Smith. It has left others scrambling for solutions to afford the one thing they need to live. I’m one of those scrambling. Not Enough Time Most people’s bodies create insulin, which regulates the amount of...

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