People who have debilitating illnesses should be able to purchase medications at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for many people in the United States living with diabetes. A Florida pharmacy tech took to TikTok to share an experience he had with customers not being able to purchase their life-saving medications, even having to put back other items they were also going to purchase just to try and get by. It’s an incredibly sad thing to witness in real-time.
The above video was posted to the TikTok account @cadenmixer, which belongs to part-time photographer and pharmacy tech Caden Mixer. In the video, he starts off by explaining that he works in a pharmacy and is constantly seeing patients come in to purchase their medications. However, he has realized that many people who require insulin specifically will simply choose not to purchase it because it is too expensive.
As an employee at a pharmacy, this really cut deep into his empathy. He even explains that there is an incredible disconnect between pharmacies, medication distributors, and doctors that really bears additional weight on the situation. Many commentators immediately replied, showing deep understanding of how he feels. Many of the comments were along the lines of, “People truly don’t understand how much we lost in the last election. It’s so sad.“
Pharmacy Tech Sobs Over the State of American Medication
He continues the video by explaining that another local pharmacy is being closed down. This puts even more people at risk of not picking up their medications promptly. Caden even tells a quick story about a woman who started to cry at his register because everything was just too overwhelming. He captions the video, “Can I trauma dump on you real quick?” and it truly is just that.
Other commentators also shared that same empathy, with the very top comment saying, “when insulin was made it was suppose to be free for everyone. the inventor wanted it free because it saved lives. corporate greed has ruined humanity.” I don’t think I could agree more. There was also much to agree about in Caden’s final message in the video, “Pharmacy is not for the weak. I do not recommend it.“
Judging by the redness of his eyes while telling the story, you can tell that it hit him very deeply. Considering the current state of the government shutdown, I hope more is being done to help those who are unable to purchase their medicine due to rising costs.
