NPR

'We're Fighting For Our Lives' — Patients Protest Sky-High Insulin Prices

The price of insulin keeps going up. For people with Type 1 diabetes, high prices can be a life and death issue. Now a grassroots movement is pushing for change.
Angela Lautner who lives in Elsmere, Ky. has Type 1 diabetes and is an advocate for affordable insulin.

Angela Lautner knew her thirst was unusual, even for someone directing airplanes, outside in the Memphis summer heat.

"We had coolers of Gatorade and water for people to always have access to," Lautner remembers of her job as a ground services agent. "But the amount of thirst that I felt was just incredible."

She had no appetite and she lost an unusual amount of weight. Then after a trip to the emergency room, Lautner, who was 22, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. The diagnosis was life changing.

To start,it meant for the rest of her life she would require insulin injections every day to keep, which can sometimes be controlled by diet, people with Type 1 diabetes need daily insulin injections to regulate their blood sugar.

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