In US, diabetics turn to 黒人／ボイコット market or Canada for life-saving insulin
Abigail Hansmeyer gives a 捕らえる、獲得する of insulin and 洗浄器／皮下注射／浣腸器s to Annette Gentile in a Minnesota area parking lot
On a frosty January morning in a Minneapolis 郊外, Abigail Hansmeyer leaves her car engine running and takes out a brown paper 捕らえる、獲得する carrying needles and a vial, 手渡すing it over to its 受取人 in an 匿名の／不明の shopping 中心 parking lot.
The 交流 is technically 違法な, but these aren't illicit 麻薬s.
Instead, the vial 含む／封じ込めるs insulin: A 薬／医学 that has since its 発見 in the 1920s transformed a diagnosis of 糖尿病 from a swift death 宣告，判決 to a manageable 病気.
Yet its price has sky-ロケット／急騰するd in the US over the past １０年間, creating informal 網状組織s of people who build up 備蓄（する）s and give to others what they don't need themselves.
"Thank you so much," says Annette Gentile, 52, as she takes the 捕らえる、獲得する from Hansmeyer, checking the labels and doses. "I've been on a roller coaster in the last few days," she 追加するs, because of her elevated 血 sugar levels.
Gentile doesn't live in abject poverty. She receives a 月毎の disability allowance of $1,200 and has public health 保険. Crucially, how ever, that 保険 does not cover prescription 薬／医学.
Even with insurancance, insulin can cost 患者s hundreds of dollars a month in the US
The contents of the 捕らえる、獲得する she just received, which will keep her going for a month, would cost her about a thousand dollars at a pharmacy. "I 純粋に rely on 寄付s," she says.
Her 29-year-old benefactor Hansmeyer is 失業した and has type 1 糖尿病, a chronic 条件 that appears in childhood where the 膵臓 produces little or no insulin, the hormone that lets sugar enter 独房s to produce energy.
People who have it need to 注入する themselves with insulin several times a day for the 残り／休憩（する） of their lives.
Both women are part of a group of diabetics who connect with each over Facebook or text messages to 手渡す out or receive their prized 医薬, 解放する／自由な of cost, いつかs using code words like "lifewater" to 避ける （犯罪，病気などの）発見.
Nearly all of the 在庫／株 that 循環させるs comes from the 親族s of 患者s who died.
For 大統領 Donald Trump's 競争相手s in the Democratic party, who begin their 最初の／主要な contests on Monday in Iowa, there are few スキャンダルs greater than the price of insulin: The epitome of 製薬の price-gouging that blights the US health c are system.
"We're not poor," says Hansmeyer. Her husband 作品 and has started a small 商売／仕事, Abigail has her own car, and the couple live in a house that pet dogs and rabbits also call home.
"My entire adult life I've gone in and out of rationing my insulin," Abigail Hansmeyer says
But her husband's 雇用者 doesn't 補助金を支給する its 労働者s health 保険. Not poor enough to qualify for 明言する／公表する 保険, and not rich enough to buy their own, the couple gave up looking in January.
They joined the 階級s of the 27.5 million Americans without ニュース報道, praying that no calamity befell them.
"My entire adult life I've gone in and out of rationing my insulin," Hansmeyer tells AFP.
A few years ago, when she won a 戦う／戦い against her then 保険会社 for an insulin pump, a computerized 装置 that continuously 解放（する）s the 権利 量 of the hormone, she remembers crying with happiness.
- Death of a child -
Hansmeyer 行為／法令／行動するs as a go-between for her community of Minneapolis area diabetics, connecting those in need with those who have. And one of her major sources is a refrigerator in the 地階 of a house belonging to one Nicole Smith-Holt.
For Nicole Smith-Holt, making sure diabetics get the insulin they need is a 原因（となる） that is devastatingly の近くに to her heart
Smith-Holt opens its door to 明らかにする／漏らす a treasure trove: Dozens of vials of insulin, and a large 在庫／株 of 洗浄器／皮下注射／浣腸器s, 実験（する） （土地などの）細長い一片s and other 供給（する）s. She guesses its value at around $50,000.
"It is 厳密に 違法な," she says.
Selling or even giving away prescription 薬／医学 is technically a minor 罪，犯罪. But for Smith-Holt, it's a 原因（となる） that is devastatingly の近くに to her heart.
"We don't need another Alec," she says, about her late son, who died in June 2017.
Alec Raeshawn Smith was covered by his mother's 保険 until he turned 26, the age up to which 保険会社s are 強いるd by an Obama-時代 法律 to 許す adult children to remain covered by their parent's 計画（する）s.
After crossing that threshold, he 設立する himself unable to afford his own 保険 on his 不十分な salary as a restaurant 労働者.
He died 27 days after his 保険 lapsed from diabetic ketoacidosis as a result of a 欠如（する） of insulin.
There was not a 減少（する） of insulin to be 設立する in his apartment, said Smith-Holt, but there was 証拠 her son had tampered with his insulin pens to try squeeze out the last bit.
Alec Raeshawn Smith died in June 2017 老年の 26 from diabetic ketoacidosis, 原因（となる）d by a 欠如（する） of insulin
"I think until I take my last breath I'll feel a sense of 犯罪 in some sort of way," said Smith-Holt. "I wish he would have asked for help."
The death of her son, who was himself a father, transformed Smith-Holt into an 行動主義者. One day she's on television, the next she's ロビーing 地元の 政治家，政治屋s, or 抗議するing outside a 製薬の company.
- O Canada -
その上の to the north, diabetics can look to providers on the 権利 味方する of the 法律 but the wrong 味方する of the 国境: Canadian pharmacies.
Every three months, Travis Paulson makes the two hour 運動 to Canada to buy his insulin without prescription
Unlike the US, Canada caps the price of insulin. Every three months, alone or with others, 47-year-old Travis Paulson makes the two hour 運動 from Eveleth in northern Minnesota to Fort フランs in Canada's Ontario 州, crossing the 雨の River to buy his insulin without prescription.
Customs スパイ／執行官s don't bother him so long as his 供給（する） is いっそう少なく than three months' 価値（がある）.
His 保険 is excellent as far as doctor visits go, but only 支払う／賃金s half the price of 薬／医学s.
He pulls out two almost 同一の vials of insulin: one is labeled NovoLog and costs $345 in the US, with his 保険 leaving him 責任がある half the 法案.
The Canadian vial is sold under the brand 指名する NovoRapid, and costs about $25. The math isn't hard.
The same insulin that costs $25 in Canada can cost up to $345 in the US
"It's 製薬の greed. It's greed is al l it is, simple as that," he says.
A Bernie やすりを削る人／削る機械s sticker on his fridge shows off Paulson's support for the self-professed democratic 社会主義者, who has 公約するd to 削減（する） 麻薬 costs in half.
But even that might not be enough to 減ずる the 控訴，上告 of his Canadian road trips.
