NY needs to boost access to insulin

For New Yorkers with diabetes like me, obstacles to obtaining insulin have created a health crisis that we take as seriously as the spread of the coronavirus. Now, more than ever, we need Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and state lawmakers to ensure we survive by making insulin more affordable and accessible.

I have Type 1 diabetes and if I stopped infusing or injecting insulin, I would die within a few days. Yet because of the high price of insulin, even though I have health insurance, I’ve had to ration the medication by taking less than is necessary for healthy blood sugar levels, risking early complications and death from high blood sugar. I’m not alone: According to studies by Yale University and T1International, 1 in 4 diabetics have skimped on insulin because they can’t afford it.

Addressing this problem was important before the COVID-19 pandemic but now it is imperative. People with diabetes — especially those who can’t afford the necessary medications — have a higher risk of dying from the virus. Even without infection, lacking access to insulin can cause people with diabetes to have dangerously high blood sugars, resulting in more visits to and strain on New York’s overburdened health care system.

Additionally, New Yorkers with diabetes are among the estimated 9 million Americans who’ve lost their employer-sponsored health insurance due to the pandemic. Now they will be forced to pay full price for insulin, or ration their supply. 

New York State recently made insulin a bit more affordable by enacting a price cap of $100 per month for copays for New Yorkers with private insurance. That will help me, as I now pay about $900 per month for insulin even with insurance.

But it won’t help uninsured and low-income New Yorkers; nor does it address other barriers to obtaining insulin. According to an analysis by the online site Data for Insulin, it will only apply to about 27% of insulin-using New Yorkers.

It’s critically important for the State Legislature to work with Cuomo to address this life-threatening problem.

They can start by passing and enacting a new insulin bill. This bill mandates the state to create a drug assistance “demonstration program,” which would study how to provide insulin to people who are uninsured or ineligible for Medicaid, as well as other low-income, underinsured diabetics. The bill also would allow pharmacists to dispense emergency prescriptions for insulin and other noncontrolled, life-sustaining drugs.

Right now, people in New York who run out of insulin can’t get refills without a new prescription from their doctors. If that happens on a time when we can’t reach our doctors who are busy dealing with the pandemic, we are faced with a daunting choice: Either we go to very crowded emergency rooms — and risk COVID-19 infections — or we don’t take insulin and risk death.

If pharmacists were able provide emergency refills, people with diabetes wouldn’t be forced to make this impossible decision.

Another bill recently introduced by Sen. Gustavo Rivera would lower the maximum copays from $100 per month per type of insulin to $30 per month, making insulin more affordable and accessible to people who depend on it.

These bills won’t permanently solve the greater insulin affordability and accessibility crisis. But at a time when we must do everything we can to manage the capacity of our health care system, they would prevent the unnecessary utilization of emergency care, and they could save lives.

Melissa Passarelli of Dix Hills is a member of New York #insulin4all, a chapter of T1International, which advocates for people with Type 1 diabetes around the world.