United States Senate 393 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington DC. 20510
Dear Senator Casey,
When I was eleven years old, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Ever since then, I have relied on daily doses of insulin to control my blood sugars. My struggles and frustrations with this disease also inspired me to enroll in college to study nutrition and dietetics; I am currently a junior at Marywood University in this pursuit and hope to become a certified diabetes educator after I graduate so I may help people with gestational, Type 1, and Type 2 Diabetes. Insulin is an extremely expensive medication. For most of my life, I have been fortunate enough to have insurance that covers the seven hundred dollar per month cost of my insulin. However, many residents of the United States who have no insurance or poor insurance are not this lucky and must pay massive medical bills each month for theirs. Often times, people who have trouble affording their insulin will take less insulin than they should or even skip doses entirely in order to conserve their supply. This results in poorly controlled diabetes, which causes a number of complications such as kidney failure, blindness, strokes, and gangrene. Some people with Type 1 Diabetes in particular, for whom insulin is required to keep them alive on a day to day basis, have even died while attempting to ration their insulin. This dangerous financial hardship is why I am asking you to support Senate Bill 2004, or the Emergency Access to Insulin Act of 2019. This bill would permit insulin users with no insurance or poor insurance to obtain insulin cards which would then allow them to receive their insulin prescriptions free of charge. These individuals being able to take their insulin as needed would help reduce complications and deaths related to diabetes and greatly benefit the general health of many United States residents. This in turn would reduce the burden of costly treatments, such as dialysis, that are often needed by people with chronically uncontrolled diabetes. I hope that you will consider supporting The Emergency Access to Insulin Act of 2019 as a gesture toward the right of people to obtain the health sustaining, and sometimes, life sustaining insulin they need. As a member of this demographic who has felt the fear of not knowing if I will be able to obtain and take the insulin that I need, I guarantee that I, along with my fellow diabetics would be eternally grateful for such support.