‘Insulin is our oxygen’: Bernie Sanders rides another campaign bus to Canada
Accompanying Americans seeking affordable medicine, the Democratic candidate lambasted US pharmaceutical giants
When Hunter Sego realized the insulin he needed to manage his Type 1 diabetes cost more than $1,400, he called his mother in a panic. His family had insurance. He did not believe it was possible a one-month supply of “life saving” medication could cost so much.
The price tag was correct.
Then a student and football player at DePauw University, he began to ration his insulin, using a quarter of what had been prescribed. He lost weight. His grades dropped. He struggled on the field.
Fortunately, his mother found out and put a stop to the practice, which can have severe consequences.
On Sunday, Hunter and Kathy Sego joined a caravan of roughly a dozen patients with Type 1 diabetes on a bus to Canada. The Vermont senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was there too – his campaign had sponsored the trip. The Americans set out to buy insulin for a fraction of its cost at home, and to highlight what the senator called “the incredible corruption and greed” of the US pharmaceutical industry.
“How does it happen 10 minutes away from the American border in Michigan, people here are paying one-10th of the price for the vitally important drug they need to stay alive?” Sanders asked.
It was, he said, a “national embarrassment”.
Sanders made the trip days before the second Democratic debate in Detroit. Among 20 candidates over two nights, healthcare is expected to be a major flashpoint.
Sanders has exchanged barbs with former Vice-President Joe Biden, who has called the senator’s healthcare policies “risky”. Sanders has accused Biden, whose plan would build on the Affordable Care Act, of not being honest about Medicare for all.
Sanders’ signature proposal, which would give the US something similar to Canada’s national healthcare system, has framed the party debate. Several leading candidates support some version of it.
The bus took about an hour to drive six miles across the Detroit river to Windsor, Ontario. Sanders listened as people told their stories.
Quinn Nystrom, a Type 1 diabetic who organizes caravans out of Minnesota, said she knew people who had lost limbs, been hospitalized or even died as a result of rationing medicine.
“Insulin is our oxygen,” she said, stressing that caravan trips are not a sustainable solution to the problem, especially because many cannot afford to take a day off of work or find the fee to apply for a passport.
“What [the pharmaceutical companies] are doing to Americans is price-gouging us and they’re holding us hostage and people are dying,” she said.
Stephanie Odette, 30, was found to have Type 1 diabetes when she was 11. She said she has had 74 hospital admissions in the last year. Her husband’s insurance covers insulin – but not the brand prescribed by her doctor.
When the bus arrived at the Olde Walkerville Pharmacy, around 100 Canadians greeted the passengers. Some held signs that said “Insulin is a human right”. One wore a shirt that said: “Canada already great, eh?” A little girl held a Sanders plush toy with a button on the back that said: “Push to activate the revolution.” An elderly man played accordion while trying to finagle a moment with the senator.
Kathy and Hunter Sego paid $1,000 for 25 vials of insulin, enough for about six months. They estimated it would have cost $10,000 for the same haul back home.
In Canada, insulin does not require a prescription. When the American group had finished their purchases, Sanders drew gasps from the Canadian crowd.
Citing a Yale study, he told them that one in four American diabetics ration their insulin because of cost. That cost has jumped by 1,200% in two decades, he said, as pharmaceutical companies have spent “hundreds of millions of dollars on campaign contributions” and “billions of dollars lobbying Congress”.
“They buy and sell politicians, Republicans and Democrats,” the senator said, “to make sure that they can continue to charge the American people any price they want. This is not just insulin, it is prescription drug after prescription drug.”
“Shame!” someone shouted.
Another yelled: “Disgrace!”
Sanders’ Medicare for all plan would cap the cost of prescription drugs at $200 a year. Earlier this year, he introduced a package of bills aimed at lowering prices. The legislation would allow the government to directly negotiate with drug manufacturers, to obtain lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries. It would also enable US consumers to import pills from Canada and other industrialized countries and it would set drug prices based on what they cost in those other places.
“This resonates in Canada as well,” said Nada Temerinski, 29, who had come from Montreal.
Canada’s healthcare system does not cover the cost of prescription drugs. Instead a review board negotiates prices in part based on rates in other countries.
“I would hope that it inspires Canadian politicians,” Temerinski said of Sanders’ work. “I’m hoping as America moves further left, that Canada does as well and ideally we could move towards prescription-free.”
Rachael Lockwood, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was sharing insulin prescribed for one child with Type 1 diabetes between two when another son was diagnosed.
“We were desperate,” she said, explaining her battle with their insurance company.
In 2016, she voted for Donald Trump. She thought a businessman might fix the nation’s problems. But after years of fighting with her insurance, having to pay out of pocket and traveling to Canada for medicine, she has become a “healthcare voter”. Trump will not be her choice next time.
This was not Sanders’ first trip to Canada for prescription drugs. He said he had made a similar trip from Vermont to Montreal, with women with breast cancer.
“It never ends,” he said, shaking his head. “The greed of the pharmaceutical industry – the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry – is scandalous and we have got to take them on.”
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This is Madness, killing people for PROFIT
Over here in UK we have NHS, and my Medicines keep me alive
they are free for the young and for the old.
Or you can buy a prepayment card for 112 or so which covers everything
Hospital stays and Gp (MD) visits are FREE
my Quadruple heart bypass was free
As is having a baby
America needs to look after the people not Big Pharma
VOTE FOR LIFE not Profits
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