
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Why do Americans have to pay so much for this life-saving drug? There are reports of some uninsured diabetics dying as a consequence. Even the health insurers and drug manufacturers say the pricing system is broken.
Manuela Saragosa speaks to Laura Marston, a type-1 diabetes sufferer and campaigner from Washington DC, about how she had to sell her house and leave her hometown just to get access to affordable insulin - and she says she is one of the lucky ones. Meanwhile the US Congress and various state law enforcement agencies are now looking into why the price of insulin is so many times higher in the US than in other developed countries.
So who is to blame? Robert Zirkelbach, executive vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, represents the drugs companies, while David Merritt, executive vice president of public affairs at America's Health Insurance Plans, represents the insurers.
(Photo: Insulin being produced at a factory in France; Credit: Getty Images)
By BBC World Service4.4
488488 ratings
Why do Americans have to pay so much for this life-saving drug? There are reports of some uninsured diabetics dying as a consequence. Even the health insurers and drug manufacturers say the pricing system is broken.
Manuela Saragosa speaks to Laura Marston, a type-1 diabetes sufferer and campaigner from Washington DC, about how she had to sell her house and leave her hometown just to get access to affordable insulin - and she says she is one of the lucky ones. Meanwhile the US Congress and various state law enforcement agencies are now looking into why the price of insulin is so many times higher in the US than in other developed countries.
So who is to blame? Robert Zirkelbach, executive vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, represents the drugs companies, while David Merritt, executive vice president of public affairs at America's Health Insurance Plans, represents the insurers.
(Photo: Insulin being produced at a factory in France; Credit: Getty Images)

7,792 Listeners

4,177 Listeners

1,060 Listeners

298 Listeners

436 Listeners

5,536 Listeners

1,798 Listeners

2,103 Listeners

357 Listeners

436 Listeners

51 Listeners

236 Listeners

251 Listeners

353 Listeners

235 Listeners

649 Listeners

236 Listeners

328 Listeners

3,212 Listeners

76 Listeners

671 Listeners

579 Listeners

625 Listeners

378 Listeners

42 Listeners

246 Listeners

52 Listeners

150 Listeners

79 Listeners

92 Listeners