For those of you who are blessed with no allergies, EpiPens are emergency auto-injectors that have epinephrine to counteract the effects of a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. I mean, the benefits speak for itself if you’re into the whole save-a-life thing. Considering about 50 million people suffer from nasal allergies alone, we’re talking about a huge amount of lives. Recently, prices for this device have spiked from what used to be less than $100 to about $400. Mylan, the company that has current rights over the EpiPen, has gradually increased prices since they bought it in 2007. Directly correlated to this price spike is the increase of salaries for executives within Mylan. Hard-earned profit or price gouging? I think the facts speak for itself.
Before you say that I’m butt-hurt because I personally suffer from allergies—I don’t. In fact, I’m not allergic to anything—I’m lucky—but not everyone is. For others, it can be a matter of life or death by simply being in the presence of a peanut butter sandwich. Things we don’t think twice about putting in our mouth, people who suffer from food allergies do their best to avoid it. They have been trained to scan nutrition labels or stock up on Claritin Clear—either way, they don’t have the luxury of carelessness we do. To make a life-saving device a luxury, makes me question our society.
It makes me wonder. Would this situation apply if it were a medicine that could cure cancer? Does the value of money really mean more than a life? Why do we continue to penalize people for something they don’t have any control over?
I guess the real concern is, when did health become such a luxury?
I’m not naïve enough to say that this was the instance that had me questioning our society. I became aware a long time ago—walking down the slums of India, knowing these individuals didn’t have the means or access to get vaccines or medicine. I realized health had become a luxury when picking health insurance was more stressful than comforting. Even simply buying pads and tampons—for a monthly period us women don’t have a choice over—when condoms are given freely, no questions asked.
Every time someone asks how much a human life is worth, people always say “priceless.” But in reality, we treat it as a commodity that is primarily run by the wealthy. We treat good health as an accessible feat rather than a state of being for all humankind. So no, I’m not butt-hurt about the EpiPen price hike—it’s more than the price gouging, it’s about what we value as a society.
