Rising insulin prices impact on families and children

32 kids from all over the world got the chance to play hockey with others just like them at Hertz Arena at the Type 1 Timer Hockey Camp.

Imagine if your child’s life depends on insulin, the price of which has skyrocketed in the last few months. Kids with diabetes were getting time on an ice rink, for their parents, it isn’t hypothetical.

“It’s just something that I’ve fallen in love with just with at a young age,” said Henry Hoffmann who has type one diabetes.

“I just got diagnosed with type one diabetes,” said Hogan Cooper. “And it gave me an opportunity to meet more people that also play hockey and have the same things I do.”

Megan and Geoff Hoffmann founded the camp, and their son Henry was diagnosed when he was 7-years-old.

“The diagnosis of a type one diabetic is a little traumatic, and that it kind of comes out of nowhere,” Megan said. Henry’s parents wanted him to it’s possible to do what he loves while living with diabetes, and know that he’s not alone.

“When they’re in the locker room, they’re changing, they’re getting ready for the ice, instead of kind of being the odd person out wearing a device or looking at their blood sugar. All sudden, that’s common, and everybody’s doing that,” said Geoff.

The kids got life lessons from diabetes specialists, teaching them how to check their blood sugar and how to give themselves insulin during meals. Without insulin children suffering from diabetes would die. Which is the exact reason why Geoff said it’s important to keep costs down.

“To have the medicine that’s necessary for life, to have price restrictions on where it’s affordable for people I just think is unacceptable,” said Geoff. “And I think we got to continue to fight for it and advocate for it.”

On Sunday Senate Republicans voted not to cap the price of insulin at $35 for people with private insurance, one of the parents, Jeanette Kelly said that decision is dangerous.

“Any type one whether they’re a child adult, it doesn’t matter,” said Kelly. “They cannot live Without insulin and it’s not their fault. Like to profit off of it. It’s just it’s so wrong. It’s so wrong.”

For people with Medicare, the price for insulin is capped at $35.

A Yale study found that 14% of people who use insulin in the United States face ‘catastrophic’ levels of spending on the drug. That means, they spend at least 40% of their income after paying for food and housing on insulin.