Mom Posts Follow Up Video About Her Son’s Insulin Costs After Donations Pour In

As the healthcare infrastructure of the United States continues to be furiously debated, one mother has asked: “Am I the only one struggling?”

Katie Schieffer uploaded a video to TikTok several weeks ago after discovering that she couldn’t afford her nine-year-old’s insulin. The video begins with Schieffer sitting in her car. She asks viewers, “How is everybody making it?”

“I’ve worked for like 17 years. I work all the time,” she say. “I’ve been paying medical bills on my son for nine years, since he was born.”

Schieffer explains that her son, Dylan, was recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes which requires he receive insulin every two hours.

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“I just got his prescription. It was $1,000. I couldn’t pay for it,” Schieffer says, tears running down her face.

“I now have to go in and tell my nine-year-old son that I couldn’t pay for it. I work a full-time job. My husband works a full-time job. I work third shift. I go to school during the day.”

The video immediately went viral – it now has almost 3 million views – and it also spread to other platforms like Twitter and Reddit – where many people paid attention.

“This country is broken,” one of the comments reads, pointing to the for-profit American healthcare system as the problem. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s also such an easy problem to solve. Literally all the government would need to do is put restrictions on how much a company can charge for insulin,” another person commented on Twitter.

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America is known for having absurdly high insulin costs, due to private companies largely having freedom to charge whatever they want.

At people’s urging, Schieffer added her Venmo and PayPal details to her account and donations poured in. In a follow-up video posted on Wednesday, Schieffer showed her son celebrating his 10th birthday.

“Alright Dylan, it’s been a whole month since your diagnosis, and how are you feeling, buddy?” Schieffer says off camera.

Dylan lists several of the steps his family has taken to manage his condition, and said he is learning about his insulin pen and the importance of keeping an eye on his blood sugar. The video ends with Dylan thanking people for their donations.

While many people commented on the video with well wishes, others were still disturbed by the nature of the whole situation.

The insulin supply chain for the USA is complex, but inconsistent insurance coverage (for insulin and all health care) can make the problem worse.1 Unlike the unified health-care systems of most nations, the USA’s is highly fragmented. Its citizens must choose their health care (or, more accurately, have their health care chosen for them) on the basis of their age, place of residence, employment, income, past military experience, and the presence of disability.

For example, people aged 65 years or older are eligible for Medicare, a federal insurance programme. Medicaid, however, is specifically for individuals younger than 65 years who meet certain criteria for poverty. Despite these safety net programmes, in 2021, more than 31 million people in the USA were without any health-care coverage, exposing them to unaffordable insulin.

Retail insulin prices (the amount one pays without insurance) have skyrocketed. Between 2007 and 2018, the cost of some insulin products has increased by more than 200%.2 People with little-to-no health insurance coverage have reported paying more than US$1000 per month when higher insulin doses are required. These unreasonable prices mean rationing other priorities, including food.

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Observers have noted that pharmacy benefit managers, who act as intermediaries between drug manufacturers and pharmacies in the supply chain, have received much of the blame for the high prices, and rightly so.3 Insulin price caps in certain US states have not had the economic impact many thought they would because few people actually qualify for them. Medicare recipients pay high prices due to a 2003 law that precludes negotiating to reduce the prices of medications, including insulin.

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