ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

Bernie Sanders wanted to make a point about a crippling injustice. So he crossed the border. Well, the northern one. On Sunday, he took about a dozen people with diabetes on a bus from Detroit to Windsor to get insulin at a Canadian pharmacy, just minutes from the border. Because of traffic, and multiple stops along the way, it took an hour and 17 minutes to get there and about the same time to get back. But the duration and the mileage were not really the main points. (Ember, 7/28)

Sitting in the back of a chartered bus organized by members of advocacy group Insulin4All, Sanders spoke to families who said they go to great lengths to ration their insulin because of high U.S. costs, often putting their health at risk. "We should be doing what the Canadians do, and that means sitting down with the drug companies and negotiating a price," he said. Democrats seeking to take the White House in 2020 see President Donald Trump as increasingly vulnerable to criticism on healthcare costs, since his administration has failed to push through several initiatives to lower drug prices. (Spalding, 7/28)

Sanders' trip, which began a little more than 48 hours before the second round of Democratic debates, was designed to bring new attention to the hardships facing people with Type I diabetes -- issues, he said again on Sunday, that can be traced directly back to "greedy" pharmaceutical companies and lawmakers who refuse to take on the crisis. By traveling to Canada, which has a single-payer, government-backed health care system, he was also making an implicit case for his "Medicare for All" plan, which would create a similar system in this country. (Krieg, Sullivan and Luhby, 7/28)

It was [Rachel] Lockwood's story, along with a dozen other people with diabetes, that prompted Sanders, as part of his presidential campaign trip to Detroit for Tuesday's debate in Detroit, to charter a bus in Detroit and head to the Olde Walkerville Pharmacy in Canada. The families' stories provided a focal point to Sanders' argument that corporate greed, fueled by political contributions to campaigns, could only be stopped by progressive policies. (Gray, 7/28)

Kathy Sego, whose son, Hunter, suffers from Type I diabetes, addressed the crowd gathered outside the pharmacy. In an emotional testimony, she spoke about the financial stress her family feels to keep her son alive. "[My son] said, "Mom, something's really wrong. Can you please call the pharmacy because I think our insurance isn't right." And I said, "What's wrong honey?", and he said, "Our insulin-- my insulin's almost costing $1,500 dollars." And I said, "Oh, that's right. That's how much we pay a month." (Korte, 7/28)

During an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders doubled down on a comment he made at a fundraiser in Detroit comparing pharmacy executives to murderers. (7/28)

Diabetes patients are increasingly using electronic skin patches and their phones, instead of pricking their fingers, to do the complex job of managing a disease that affects more than 30 million Americans. The transformation in blood-sugar testing suggests how harnessing technology and data may drive improvements for disease management—and profits for manufacturers. Many patients now wear coin-sized skin patches on their arms or abdomens that test for blood-sugar levels automatically, then send the data to a patient’s smartphone or even to a wearable insulin pump that delivers the medicine. (Loftus, 7/29)