Health care is a human right. It is not a privilege for those who can afford it. What happened to Alec Smith is shameful and inhumane. Not only is it a tragedy, but it is an indictment of American's health care system and Big Pharma. Alec would be alive today were it not for the shortcomings of the U.S. health system and the greed of Big Pharma.
Alec's mother, Nicole Smith-Holt, made the following comment to The Independent: "I didn't know anybody else who was in the same situation. It wasn't until I gave my first interview, a couple of months after Alec passed away, that people started messaging me . . . it made me feel like Alec's death was not an isolated situation. It made me open up my eyes that this is a crisis.
Alec suffered from Type 1 diabetes. His is body did not produce the hormone insulin, which is necessary to regulate blood sugar. In the case of Type 2 diabetics, however, the body is able to produce insulin, but other cells have developed a resistance to it, which causes similar problems. Alec was 24 when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. His mother was aware that it was called "juvenile diabetes." She assumed that the diagnosis was incorrect because Alec was not a juvenile. She did some research and learned that one can be diagnosed with Type 1 at any age.
On June 1, 2017, when Alec Smith turned 26, he faced a crisis. He was no longer covered by by his mother's insurance. He had been working as manager at a family-owned restaurant in his hometown of Richfield, Minnesota, The business was not large enough to provide insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Alec earned a salary of $35,000 a year. The best health insurance plan he could find cost $450 a month, on top of $7.600 a month deductible - the amount that patients are required to pay out of their own pockets each year until insurance comes into effect.
Alec Smith found himself caught in a classic Catch 22 situation. His salary was too high to qualify for Medicaid but not enough where he could always afford his insulin. Although Alec was working full time, he could not afford the insurance needed to pay for his health care He chose to pay for what insulin he could afford until he found a job with benefits. Unknown to family and friends, Alec couldn't even afford a month of his insulin. He decided to beginning rationing out his injections.
Alec did not inform his mother of his dire predicament. Nicole, a financial aid administrator for a community college, said she would have had to "break the bank" to help her son. "We found out that he had gone to the pharmacy about a week before his paycheque was coming, and when he found out how much it was going to be he didn't have cough money in the bank, so we felt that he was stretching it to last until the next paycheque, his mom told People magazine. She felt that Alec did not tell her about his situation, because he felt he wanted to avoid moving back home.
On June 27, 2017, Alec Smith was found dead, slumped down and alone in his new apartment. The official cause of death was ketoacidosis (an insulin deficiency due to a life-threatening complication of Type 1 diabetes). His heartbroken mother, who had never been politically motivated, became an advocate for diabetics. She went before the vice president of a prominent American pharmaceutical company and told him that the real cause of her son's death was the price of life-saving insulin and drugmakers' "greed."
Fortunately, Alec's mother and her supporters have managed to make some progress, although not nearly enough. Due to their efforts, the state of Minnesota has passed Alec's Law, which makes it mandatory for insulin makers to supply 30 days' supply at $35 to people in emergencies or 90 days for 50 to those on low income. Other states, such as Colorado, Maine and Utah, have passed similar laws, according to T1 International, a patients' group.
At the federal level, former President Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill included a $35 price cap on what insured Americans can pay for insulin. Yet, the bill offered no help for the millions of Americans who lack health insurance, They remained vulnerable.
Jazmine Baldwin, whose sister Jada, also a Type 1 diabetic, passed away in 2019 because she couldn't afford her insulin, has stated that much more is needed. She pointed out that even if the Build Back Better bill had been in effect when her sister died, it wouldn't have saved Jada's life.
Jada worked at a cinema in Virginia. She worked 30 to 50 hours per week, doing everything from selling tickets to helping in the kitchen. However, she was still considered a part time worker and did not qualify for health insurance. Without health insurance, her insulin cost $300 per vial. In hospital, Jada confided to her sister that she felt uncomfortable about asking relatives for so much money.
We cannot be sure how many Americans have died since 2017 because they could not afford insulin, but it is doubtful that Alec Smith and Jada Baldwin are the only ones. According to The Mirror, a British newspaper, at least a dozen young Americans have lost their lives since 20917 because they could not pay the high cost of insulin.
Sadly, with Donald Trump and his Maga team back in the White House, it is highly unlikely that that the situation for diabetics will improve anytime soon. Trump has appointed the unelected Elon Musk to be in charge of the department of government efficiency (DOGE). With Trump's approval, the richest man in the world intends to make cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Ordinary Americans, who can't afford insulin, will continue to suffer and die. Trump and Musk don't care. They have no empathy.
END NOTES
I checked my facts about Alec Smith with a Snopes fact check (www.snopes.com) by David Emery. Emery rated the basic facts of the original meme about Alec on the Occupy Democrats Facebook page as mostly accurate, although Smith's given name was Alec, not Alex, and he died in 2017, not "this year" as the text of the 2018 meme claimed.
Scopes also confirmed the case of Shane Patrick Boyle, an uninsured Type 1 diabetic who died of ketoacidosis soon before launching a GoFundMe campaign to raise enough money for a one-month supply of insulin.
SOURCES: The Independent, "How a Minnesota man who died from soaring inulin prices could change US diabetes care forever." by Io Dodd, December 10, 2021; People magazine. "Mom Fights for Lower Insulin Costs After Her Diabetic Son Died from Rationing His Medication," by Julie Mazziotta, May 24, 2018; The New Republic, "How Insulin Became the Foster Child for Medicare for All." by Natalie Shure, February 27, 2020
- Joanne
