MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Democrat Delegate from Monongalia County, Barbara Fleischauer called a press conference Tuesday to raise awareness about the price of insulin and a December trip to Canada she is leading.
Liz Rossi, a local teacher, told a story about a friend she had that passed away because she didn’t have insulin. Rossi says she lost her job and benefits in January and rationed insulin while waiting for Medicaid benefits. Four months later she was found deceased due to a diabetic coma in her home.
“Even though there are safety nets there’s still failure within the system,” Rossi said,”If insulin is not easy to access that’s cheap and affordable people will die, people do die.”
Fleischauer says she is working with Jordan Hill, Chair of the House Health and Human Resources Committee, to pass legislation that would limit the co-pay for insulin. It’s modeled after the Colorado law that limits the co-pay to $50. Fleischauer also says she has co-sponsored legislation to allow pharmacies to fill emergency prescriptions for life-saving medicine (sometimes called Kevin’s law) after Kevin Houdeshell, who died after a pharmacy would not fill his expired insulin prescription on New Year’s Eve.
Rossi is very grateful for the state-level effort, but when asked about the lack effort at the federal level she expressed frustration.
“Move it forward,”Rossi said,”Stop worrying about getting reelected, because once you do something huge like that, once you fight for something huge like that people will respond.”
“Everybody knows somebody who has it, we just didn’t realize people were dying from it because of the cost,”Fleischauer said,”I think it’s particularly important in West Virginia that our congressional delegation work together on this.”
The round-trip to the Niagara Falls Walmart will be done on Sunday, December 8.
Round-trip bus tickets are available at $100 each.
Fleischauer says residents who would like to go should make arrangements to get passports now. Passports can take up to six weeks to get up to six weeks to acquire, passport cards are $65 each, regular passports are $165 and for optional expedited service there is an additional $60 fee.
Residents can make donations toward seats on the bur trip or direct a donation to purchase insulin for a person with diabetes that can’t afford the life-saving drug.