Meet the pilgrims crossing the border for cheaper insulin

In distance, Minneapolis is about 300 miles from the Canadian border. When it comes to what people pay for insulin, the two places are thousands of dollars apart.

That’s why a group of advocates piled into four cars over the weekend to make the five-hour drive and spend about $1,000 on insulin that would have cost roughly 10 times that back home. As STAT’s Nicholas Florko reports, it was part protest, part press conference, and part act of survival.

The idea for a caravan began on Facebook and quickly grew into a way for advocates to at once get the insulin they need and draw attention to a system they say gouges patients.

“Can you explain to me why I would stay in the U.S. and continue to be price-gouged for $320 a vial when I can drive five hours and get it for $30?” asked Quinn Nystrom, a caravan participant.

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