First, you were a model for how to legalize and sell recreational marijuana. In fact, you have managed to make the business profitable enough to pay for your state’s infrastructure. This post, however, is not about the legalization of cannabis. It’s about something almost as important, insulin.

Just yesterday, May 23, the Colorado legislature approved a $100 per month on insulin prices. It has been well-publicized and well-known to people with diabetes that the cost of insulin has skyrocketed. If you want to use the “big Pharma,” this is a better place to use it instead of with vaccines. Since about 2012, the price of insulin is cracked up to approximately $1000 to $2000 per month. This price rivals the cost of many new name-brand drugs, and yet insulin has been out for years. What happened?

The simple answer and it’s no conspiracy is the fact that many pharmaceutical companies have raised the price to cover the costs of research or making other drugs. The other possibility courses that the executives of these companies just want to line their pockets with the money of people with chronic diseases. In this day and age, I would buy the latter. Either way,  the price of drugs is skyrocketing; and we sit in a situation where most legislative bodies refuse even to address the issue, let alone do something about it.

Many people don’t engage in their healthcare simply because of the cost. Obviously, with insulin, many people need that to live, but, at an extreme cost, many people can afford it. So thankfully in steps Colorado. This from the Denver Post:

Diabetics in Colorado who use insulin to control their blood sugar levels won’t pay more than $100 per month for the drug starting in January thanks to a bill signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday.

“Today, we will declare that the days of insulin price gouging are over in Colorado,” Polis said in his office as he signed the bill, according to CBS Denver.

Colorado is the first state to implement a cap on what its residents will be charged for medications.

I say bravo. From a provider standpoint, it is complicated to treat someone for disease when the patient refuses to or can afford medications. I can understand not being able to afford a new medication that is only available as a name brand. If you don’t know, name-brand medications often come with a premium price. If that medications not covered by insurance or the person doesn’t have insurance, those medications can quickly become “spendy.”

In my practice, I have seen people literally throw away a script for medication because it boils down to paying for that medication or eating and having a place to live. No one in this country should have to make that choice. Regardless of your views on healthcare, we all need insurance. Expansion, not a retraction of the ACA, is what was needed. Instead, we have spent a great deal of useless time trying to repeal legislation that actually improved our access to healthcare.

Oh well enough of a soapbox, people are convinced by politicians with a hidden agenda, to give up a basic need such as healthcare. I will tell you that when you need insurance, it will be the time when you have a catastrophic event in your life. That event will cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you will ask why didn’t I have insurance?

I won’t touch on the subject of universal healthcare is that just because that just pisses people off to for whatever reason. It is something, however, that we do need in this country. The skyrocketing cost of healthcare should be the first indication of this.

Either way folks with diabetes and Colorado were dealt a huge win this week, and that is something to celebrate in a regulation adverse society.