Business Letter

8637 Fernhill Drive Fort Worth, Texas 76123 April 9, 2019 Greg Abbott Office of the Governor P.O Box 12428 Austin, Texas 78711-2428 Dear Mr. Abbott, I would be very delighted if you spend a minute reading my letter. I am a Texas resident and a TCC student planning to major in Nursing. I believe it is extremely significant to bring your attention to my concern that insulin costs are too high, and I am looking for your help to lower the insulin prices for diabetes patients in our community. Based on the data of American Diabetes Association, there are more than 30 million Americans with diabetes, and approximately 3 million people in Texas, that costs annually nearly $327 billion for the whole nation, and an estimated $26 billion in Texas respectively. Insulin prices have become unaffordable to diabetes patients and their families. The prices of an insulin vial have increased by more than 15 times over a decade. One recent sad case was Alec Smith, who died at 26 years old from not having enough insulin. His costs for insulin and supplies were around $1300 per month, and because he was unable to afford this, he started rationing his insulin and died of a diabetic coma. It is very urgent that we take immediate action to resolve this issue, at least at the state level. I implore you to consider the solution that Louisiana state has found to lower the price of a Hepatitis C medication by signing a contract with Gilead Sciences. I suggest we must get one of the top drug manufacturers to sign an exclusive contract offering a fixed price for insulin for the state’s entire Medicaid population. By doing that, instead of paying $26 billion for our burden of diabetes costs per year, we could spend less by paying one of these corporations for a guaranteed amount of revenue per year. I am confident that you would support this idea, as being Texas Governor, you must care about the health of the people of Texas.

Respectfully,

Thi Burnette