This 6 yr old meme that I took on in 2018 has been resurrected. It recounts a tragic situation, but omits much relevant information that so often accompanies these types of stories. Also, it’s even less likely to happen today given many changes, but here’s the original takedown:
▪️According to news reports, his mom said they were looking at a $450/month insurance plan, and he opted to stay uninsured. However, this appears to be the list price for the premium, not including subsidies the govt pays. A look at the MNsure site (the Obamacare exchange in MN where he would be shopping) shows substantially lower payments. These vary depending on the exact income, age and location, but all scenarios are much lower than $450.
▪️For example, a 30 yr old making $38,000 would pay $286/month on a bronze plan vs the $512 list price. A 26 yr old making $28,000 would pay $247/month on the gold plan (low deductible) compared to $451 total. A 30 yr old making $30,000 would pay $170/month on a bronze plan compared to $352.
▪️Assuming he made $35,000/yr, it’s likely his insurance would cost somewhere around $250/month for a bronze plan and $300 for a gold plan when the subsidies are factored in.
▪️Since he opted for no insurance, he knew he needed to pay for insulin himself. Certain brands of insulin can be quite expensive, and it’s certainly possible he was quoted something high, although it wouldn’t be $1,300 per month. According to a New England Journal of medicine report, insulin can cost as much as $120-400 per month out of pocket. Even the news article says the high-priced brand Humalog costs $250 for a 2-3 week supply, which would put that brand at around $500 per month without insurance.
▪️However, much cheaper prices can be found when shopping around. Walmart sells Novolin N insulin for $25, it’s listed right now on their website. The same can be found at Walgreens for $64, and other pharmacies sometimes charge $100 or more, so it pays to look when insurance isn’t footing the bill. Inexpensive insulin brands are sometimes not as desirable, as they don’t last as long and might need more applications than newer more expensive options, but they still work and are affordable for those on a budget.
▪️Walmart also offers inexpensive prescription plans for many diabetes medications, ranging from $4-30/month. There are several other prescription assistance programs out there that will help, not to mention charities for the truly needy. If you are paying out of pocket or money is an issue, it’s important to let your health care professionals know, as they can prescribe cheaper options and help to make sure you get medication. Not telling anyone and rationing medication is the worst decision, and not necessary.
▪️The real tragedy of this case is that it doesn’t appear Alec communicated with his doctors or sought any outside help. Instead, he took matters into his own hands, and ended up dying over something completely preventable and affordable. While the high price of some insulin products is an issue, it in itself was not the cause of this tragedy, and it’s simply wrong to pretend the only realistic options for diabetics are to risk death or spend a fortune on medication.
Note: some of these source links might not work or have changed in price as I used them 6+ yrs ago
http://www.startribune.com/son-s-death-pushes-mom-into-drug-price-spotlight/482344871/
https://mn.gov/mnsure-stat/assets/2018-MNsure-healthcare-coverage-plan-rates.pdf
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/health/how-to-get-insulin-at-a-cheaper-price
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pharmacy-Relion-Humulin-Insulin/167672445
https://diabetesed.net/page/_files/Diabetes-Meds-on-a-Budget.pdf
▪️The left keeps using this meme but they don’t actually believe it. If you believe SNAP subsidizes companies to pay below a “living wage” this implies that if you take food stamps away they would suddenly pay a higher, “living” wage. So why not get rid of food stamps, then?!
▪️Except they know, and everyone knows, this isn’t true. Wages are set by supply and demand, not some mythical “living wage” metric. Absent food stamps there would actually be downward, not upward, pressure on wages, because the reality is food stamps subsidize the poor to not work as much as they might otherwise need to.
▪️Without SNAP, some low income people would need to work more hours to make ends meet, increasing the availability of low-skilled labor and lowering wages (all else being equal).
▪️Plus, we all know the left loves and supports food stamps. Which means, by this meme’s logic, they love to subsidize corporate profits. But they don’t really, they just think this ...
▪️Wait, this is the guy libertarians and the new right rave about being a great historian?! This sounds like a clueless meme from The Other 98%, except they wouldn’t add in the bizarre defense of feudal lords. Feudalism didn’t deprive peasants of their livelihoods for abstract goals? This is total fantasy.
▪️Amazon employs 1.55M, so this is less than 2% of their workforce, although these cuts will be to corporate, which employs 350k, so 8.5% of that. The CEO says there is an excess of bureaucracy at Amazon, and AI can automate certain repetitive tasks. Also, much of the cuts will be to HR, which is expected shrink by 15%, yay. Managers and HR are peasants now?
▪️I don’t know the inner workings of Amazon, and neither does Darryl, but this seems to be normal management practice to keep a company efficient and competitive. Given the immense size of Amazon the numbers look large, but far bigger shakeups happen all the time in the private sector. Apparently, under the new ...
▪️This statistic is just made up. The reality is that there hasn’t been a real study on this since 2013, when Pew did a poll. They found that Democrats were actually more than twice as likely as Republicans to report ever using food stamps (22% vs 10%).
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2013/07/12/the-politics-and-demographics-of-food-stamp-recipients/
▪️Obviously, those percentages could have changed over the past decade, but it’s very likely that Dems still receive more SNAP benefits. Certainly, without an actual study or poll the claim should be thrown out, as it wildly contradicts a previous study.
▪️The meme probably comes from a 2024 analysis by Social Explorer, which found that 78.7% of US counties with the largest increase in SNAP since 2010 voted for Trump in 2020. But that tells us nothing about the actual number of Republicans (or Democrats) who are receiving benefits, just county-wide trends.
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