JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – “You can’t escape your genes. That’s the cold hard truth.”
For Mississippians, that is the cold hard truth.
According to Assistant Director of the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi, Irena McClain, one out of three Mississippians are diabetic and the number of diabetics in the state has grown 23 percent since 2012.
Data also showed the price of insulin, which is essential to most type 1 diabetics’ everyday life, is up 600 percent in the last 20 years.
“Everyone’s afraid, I mean, you read the statistics, and you find a large percentage of people that even have insurance are rationing insulin.”
The rise in diagnoses and the cost of insulin is causing diabetics’ to decide between life-saving medicine, or having enough money to pay for other essentials.
McClain says this issue is especially difficult for younger diabetics who will soon be off their parent’s insurance policies.
“It’s only going to make a healthier, stronger Mississippi, a better workforce, it’s going to help our kids in college who already have diabetes, you know, when they turn 19, they no longer have Medicaid, and then they have to scurry around, to try to find a way to get that insulin that keeps them alive.”
Mississippi state legislators have not elected to accept the Biden Administration’s Medicaid relief that will help diabetics get the insulin they need at a much cheaper price.
The Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi will continue to spread more information through November, which is National Diabetes Awareness Month.
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