The following is an opinion-editorial.
A tremendous growth in the cost of the EpiPen, the lifesaving tool Americans inject to their bodies when under reaction from a food they are allergic to, is causing millions to become aggravated. What once was an affordable purchase has become something that not many can afford…
Having a deadly peanut allergy is a scary thing, especially because you never know when something may happen. Fortunately, the horrifying thoughts of possibly dying subside when people remember that they have an EpiPen.
Though owning an EpiPen is crucial when one has such an extreme allergy, the cost to buy one is not cheap. The price has skyrocketed from what used to be approximately $250 in 2009 to now $615 in 2016. The people who are not covered with insurance are scared, and others are simply unable to afford it.
Staci Pearlstein, my mother, says, “Having a daughter with a nut allergy has been a challenge. Now with the price of the EpiPen rising, situations can get scary. Luckily we are covered by insurance, but it is unacceptable that something that was once affordable is now so costly.”
Additionally, David Namerow, a Fair Lawn, N.J., pediatrician says, “More and more parents are complaining over the last month that the cost of EpiPens has gone through the roof, making it very difficult.”
Being a parent who knows that your child has a horrific allergy and the one thing that you could rely on to save their life is no longer affordable is petrifying, and should not be something one has to worry about.
It has become such a problem that a petition to Congress is now spreading across the internet. The online protest, called “Stop the EpiPen Price Gouging,” has become wildly popular, gaining a following on social media that has collected over 48,000 signatures.
Nine in ten schools nationally have one or more students with food allergies. Since EpiPens expire after a year, schools and consumers must buy it annually. Every single year, schools will now have to spend a whopping $615 for a single EpiPen, repeating that process so long as they have any students with allergies.
The skyrocketing price to now buy an EpiPen is ridiculous. Though some may argue that $615 is a reasonable price for a life-saving tool, it is not. If EpiPens were still selling at the price that they once were, $250, you could buy two for the price of one and still have over $100 left over. At one point in time, EpiPens were well-priced, but now they are simply unreasonable. Millions of people are already unlucky enough to have a severe allergy, and by making EpiPens more expensive, it makes these people even more unlucky.
