# Did Alex Smith Die at Age 26 Because He Couldn’t Afford Insulin?



## Northerner (Sep 25, 2018)

*CLAIM*
A 26-year-old man named Alex Smith of Minneapolis died because he had aged out of his mother's health insurance and couldn't afford insulin.

*RATING*



 TRUE
*ORIGIN*
An Associated Press analysis published in late September 2018 warned that prescription drug prices in the United States were still rising precipitously despite President Trump’s vow to reduce them. During the first seven months of the year, the report said, prescription drug prices saw 96 increases for every cut.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/alex-smith-died-couldnt-afford-insulin/

A snopes fact check of a recent meme I have seen shared on Facebook - a damning indictment of one of the world's richest countries and truly shameful


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## Lanny (Sep 25, 2018)

I quite agree with you @Northerner!

You, know I think the “American Dream” is an impossible dream dangled in front of a lot of people! For every ONE that attains it; countless others have fallen by the wayside! The American Dream ISN’T such a dream afterall! Excessive money, if you attain it, comes with it’s own problems AND it STILL can’t buy you the best things in life!

It was a needless waste of a young life! It makes me very grateful to have the NHS in the UK. I’d already seen the vast gulf of a difference in health care between the average person & the super rich in Hong Kong when my mum was dying of cancer in 2015!


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## mikeyB (Sep 25, 2018)

It may change. There’s a groundswell of ‘socialist’ candidates winning Democratic primaries ahead of the mid term elections. Get a Democrat into the White House next time, and we’ll see.

It is shameful in the 21st century. I don’t understand how the population tolerates it.  

What Trump doesn’t understand is that drug prices in the UK and EU are cheaper because they have the financial clout to keep the rapacious drug companies under control. I would have thought with his business experience he would see that.


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