Quick background, the owners of EpiPen have recently skyrocketed the price of their product, which are used for children and adults with life-threatening allergies. The shot of epinephrine is supposed to be used to minimize the side effects of anaphylactic shock until a more stabilizing medicine can be applied. People with allergies are encouraged to carry their own EpiPens in case of an allergic reaction, and schools are also now mandated to have some at ready access with trained staff members.
Naturally, with something like this that will save a person’s life, there must be some way that the president can increase income by over 600 percent.
I know it seems like a minor inconvenience or something to grumble about at work. What I think the people in charge of the company don’t realize is that they are not only making money off of their investment: they are killing people in the process because they can’t afford the alternative.
For many people, the use of an EpiPen determines life and death. If a family in a low-income area has a child with a severe bee allergy, they may find it impossible to scrounge up $600 to buy life-saving medicine. They constantly live in fear that their child may be stung when playing outside or walking to the car. Thankfully, once the child gets to school, they have some shots available and staff members who are trained to handle such an emergency.
The parents can relax, right?
Wrong.
Since their school is in a low-income area, the school needs to take money out of something in order to make this important investment. Personally, I believe that EpiPens should be in schools because they can save a child’s life. However, whenever the school district can’t afford textbooks for every student or has to cancel the funding for the new basketballs for the gym, that’s when I start raising my eyebrows. Schools should be able to help a child in need. By raising the price of EpiPens so much, our education system is losing money that could be going elsewhere.
That also doesn’t cover the fact that the child isn’t always going to be in school. The parents either have to find an alternative epinephrine shot or scrape together $600 to make sure their child is safe.
OK, so what’s an alternative? How can they afford it? They heard a rumor that people are starting to make heroin-like kits for epinephrine shots to combat the absurd prices of EpiPens.
The parents in the low-income area don’t know what to do. They’ve cut back as much as they can, but they still can’t afford their child’s medicine. Maybe they should give that one guy with a tin with a needle a shot. That’s going to be safe to use on a child.
Right?
