HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Dr. Traci Thompson doesn’t have diabetes, but the disease has been a part of her life for almost a decade.
“It really is a family affair,” she said. “This July will mark the 10-year anniversary of my younger brother dying from complications of diabetes at the age of 35.”
According to Thompson, her brother — Billy Thompson, Jr. — could never secure a steady supply of life-saving insulin.
“He, unfortunately, did not have health insurance — couldn’t secure health insurance — so he was bouncing around from doctor to doctor trying to get his insulin,” she said.
Dr. Thompson knows her brother was not and is not alone.
According to a survey in 2018, the price of a vial of insulin in the U.S. was roughly 10 times greater than the cost of a vial in many other developed nations.
Thompson, the Chief Medical Officer of Humana Healthy Horizons in Florida, opened a community clinic near the intersection of Nebraska Ave. and Hanna Ave. last year to serve less fortunate people.
She said her time at the nonprofit clinic, Dr. Traci’s House, has shown her that insulin is still unaffordable for many Tampa Bay families.
“It’s an everyday occurrence,” she said. “I mean, there are families who have to think about, ‘Well, how much is this going to cost.’”
However, Dr. Thompson was more hopeful and finally had reason to celebrate Wednesday.
Drugmaker Eli Lilly announced it's slashing its insulin prices by 70% and expanding a program to cap a patient’s out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 a month, whether insured or uninsured.
“This is a game changer. I mean, there are millions of people across the country who, you know, forgo getting insulin or taking insulin as prescribed because they can’t afford it,” Dr. Thompson said. “Being able to use medications that people can afford is going to change the game in terms of how we manage diabetes.”
Dr. Henry Rodriguez, the clinical director of USF’s prestigious Diabetes and Endocrinology Center, agrees with that assessment.
“It’s a major, major announcement,” he said Wednesday. “For someone with Type 1 Diabetes, they don’t have a choice. It’s either get their insulin or — not to be melodramatic about this — or die.”
Dr. Rodriguez believes the announcement will make a difference in Tampa Bay and across Florida, where 2.1 million people are diagnosed with diabetes.
“The individuals that it affects the most are those that are most vulnerable. Those that, you know, are either at the poverty line or, quite honestly…even above that,” he said. “They have to make the decision, ‘Am I going to, you know, pay the rent? Am I going to, you know, pay for food? Or am I going to pay for insulin?’”
Dr. Rodriguez — whose center serves as the regional epicenter for diabetes treatment, research, and education — can’t say for sure but said he’s “more hopeful than not” that other drugmakers will follow Eli Lilly’s lead and reduce the price of insulin.
Dr. Thompson, meanwhile, hopes that will be the case so no more families will have to experience what hers did almost 10 years ago.
“He’s always been there with me. He was my younger brother,” she said. “I feel like, you know, when he passed away, like, I lost a child.”
