Beta Cell

Home
Beta Cell

The award-winning podcast about people living with type 1 diabetes. The EIN for Beta Cell Action is 92-2603887.

Beta Cell Action lobbies for federal legislation that eliminates barriers to accessing insulin and other diabetes medications and devices. We endorse federal lawmakers and candidates who share our belief that diabetes care should not be for profit. Beta Cell Action is a 501(c)(4) organization, which focuses on advocacy and legislative work. Because Beta Cell Action fights for affordable insulin by organizing around critical elections and key legislative battles—donations are not tax-deductible.

23/01/2025

Beta Cell Action is launching a new campaign to provide specific, easy actions you can take to make a positive difference for people living with diabetes. These actions won’t address everything that is terrible, and we might miss things and make mistakes (we are only a 3-person team volunteering our time to this project), but we are doing our best to highlight simple yet effective steps you can take. There are going to be a lot of things to do in the coming days and years, and collective action is our best way forward.

So let’s lower our cortisol levels a tad (and maybe even out our BGs) and take the steps we can right now.

Check the link in bio for the full Beta Cell Action newsletter.

14/11/2024

On this , Beta Cell Action looks at how Trump’s administration is going to change healthcare for diabetics in the U.S.—and our plan to counter it. 🔗 in bio.

Want to be a part of the resistance? Let us know.

28/08/2024

This is why coupons are not the answer for high list prices for drugs.

Companies like Eli Lilly and Dexcom can change the price at any time for people who rely on medications and devices to stay alive.

Unless there are caps on the list price, we are at the mercy of companies that care more about profits than people.

09/06/2024

is no longer replacing sensors that fall off!

While very publicly rolling out their direct-to-Apple Watch update, Dexcom has secretly rolled out an update to their sensor replacement policy. Previously, if you had a sensor fall off early (like if it gets caught on a door or shirt, you sweat it off, etc.), Dexcom would send you a replacement. Now, “Dexcom will provide a maximum of three (3) goodwill replacement sensors in a twelve (12) month period.”

Since insurance typically only covers three sensors a month (that last for 10 days each), this can leave people with diabetes who rely on continuous glucose monitoring to avoid dangerous low blood sugars or to operate their closed-loop pumps (like Control IQ on Tandem) without a CGM, forcing people with diabetes to pay $190/mo out-of-pocket for additional sensors.

As Steering Committee Members of the Time In Range Coalition, Dexcom actively works with diabetes nonprofits to get more people onto their system (so they make more money).

Dexcom Warriors, their unpaid influencer program, even requires “Warriors” to lobby for expanded Dexcom coverage for Medicare and Medicaid.

Cgms are only useful if we can afford them!

CGM usage has been shown in studies to reduce A1c, so CGMs should not only be accessible to diabetics who can pay for it. JDRF states that 673,000 T1Ds will die by 2040 without access to CGMs and pumps.

What can you do?
1. Contact your representatives and tell them that we need price caps on life saving medical technology (find contact info at betacellaction.org).
2. Use additional tape to keep your sensors on.
3. Do not become a Dexcom Warrior.

04/06/2024

Due to the overwhelmingly negative opinion people with have of JDRF propping up Big Pharma & high insulin prices while letting people with T1D die, they’ve changed to a bu****le logo to be more in line with how people with T1D see them.

For real, a report for Eli Lilly shareholders actually pointed out that Lilly gives JDRF between $1-2.5m a year as a “partner” because (in exchange for?) JDRF steering clear “of criticizing pharmaceutical companies and high drug prices.”

JDRF has estimated that 110,000 T1Ds will die without access to (too expensive) insulin and test strips. They know it’s killing diabetes and accept bribes to do nothing anything about it. It’s literally in their deal to let drug prices stay high, folks.

Don’t let their bu****le rebrand blind you.

19/04/2024

Reminder that the pharmaceutical corporations that pay JDRF for their “partnership” in not criticizing them are the same ones literally taking affordable insulin off the market.

Maybe the production of insulin shouldn’t be in the hands of three for profit companies (who use their profits to silence criticism of high drug prices).

Should essential drugs be nonprofit?

18/04/2024

is saying the quiet part out loud here.

In their message to shareholders before their May 2024 meeting, Lilly highlighted their paid ”partnership” with since 1997 and how “JDRF steers, clear of criticizing, pharmaceutical companies and high drug prices.”

Whether an explicit agreement to not address drug prices or a wink and a nod when the check is signed, this complicity for JDRF has no doubt killed countless diabetics who were unable to afford their insulin—all because the largest nonprofit would rather cash another check from Big Pharma than fight to lower the price of insulin in the U.S.

Lilly’s shareholder message quotes JDRF’s principle that drug pricing policy should not come at the cost of new drugs. But what is the point of having newer (more expensive) drugs if the ones we have now still aren’t affordable?

Four months after Lilly lowered the price of Humalog, there is now a shortage, forcing to switch to their more expensive Lyumjev fast acting insulin (~$300/vial list price).

Why does JDRF care more about new drugs than keeping diabetics alive?

24/09/2023

A new clinical report on low-carbohydrate “keto” for children and adolescents (2-18 years old) with or at risk for diabetes concluded that:

“Despite the increasing popularity of low-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets for managing diabetes in adults, there are safety concerns to consider for youth with diabetes who are restricting carbohydrate intake to control weight and/or blood glucose. These include growth deceleration, nutritional deficiencies, poor bone health, nutritional ketosis that cannot be distinguished from ketosis resulting from insulin deficiency, and disordered eating behaviors.

“Low-carbohydrate (

01/09/2023

Remember those $35 insulin programs that pharma touted as a way to end the insulin pricing crisis without actually changing their prices?

Democratic Senators Maggie Hassan and Tina Smith found that they he applications for these insulin programs, require patience to go fill out 5-10 pages of documentation and then wait an undisclosed amount of time for approval.

The two senators sent a letter to drug makers, asking for more information on their eligibility criteria, whether insurance status affects their approval, and a list of all the steps they have to take to sign up.

Don’t believe pharma (and pharma funded nonprofits) when they tell you that programs they create are the solution to THEIR high prices.

09/08/2023

Public drug production happens all over the world and results in cheaper drugs more readily available. Maybe we should do this in the U.S. too? 🤔

Read the whole article in Stat: https://www.statnews.com/2023/08/09/drug-shortages-public-pharma-option/

Address

Website

https://linktr.ee/betacellpodcast

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Beta Cell posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Address
Alerts
Claim ownership or report listing
Want your business to be the top-listed Media Company?

Country:

City:

About Beta Cell

At 13 years old, Craig Stubing started experiencing the symptoms of extremely high blood sugar. Without any experience with type 1 diabetes, his family mistook his symptoms as just puberty. Eventually, a visit to the doctor sent him to the emergency room and changed his life forever. Hear more of Craig’s story here.

Craig launched Beta Cell in 2015 as a response to an online community he felt was more about complaining than understanding each other. Through one-on-one interviews with people of all backgrounds, Craig tries to discover how type 1 diabetes impacts our lives and how our lives impact our type 1 diabetes.

To help explore the many aspects of living with type 1 diabetes, Craig created and hosts three more shows: Out of Range, a talk show about "real things diabetes;" The 3s, where people with T1D interview their friends and family; and Thicker Than Water, which documents Craig's Aunt Laura getting diagnosed with, and adjusting to, life with type 1 diabetes at 60 years old.

In 2019, Beta Cell was named the “Diabetes Podcast of the Year.”