The Price To Survive

Abstract

This capstone project describes a personal healthcare journey with Type I Diabetes in the United States and the fluctuating price of insulin necessary to treat this disease. This paper emphasizes the dangerous toll on a person’s health and quality of life that results from the choices and sacrifices one must make to purchase and have on hand the supply of insulin needed on a daily basis. The "Cost To Survive" is explained through a narrative of personal experience, the diabetic literature, online news reports, and a President’s stand on the issue. A vivid diagram illustrates the complex and convoluted insulin supply chain that master-minds extreme price-fixing of insulin in the United States. Rationing of insulin supply is a dangerous but necessary technique for some persons-that leads to health disparity and fast forwarding of dangerous side effects that may be fatal as a result of untreated diabetes.