Documentary Review: 'Pay or Die'
How pharmaceutical companies will let people die for their profits.
Pay or Die (2023)
Directed by Rachel Dyer, Scott Alexander Ruderman
Written by Documentary
Starring The Public Fight Over Insulin
Release Date November 1st, Streaming on Paramount Plus November 14th
Published October 31st, 2023
I was going to say that other countries in the world are laughing at our healthcare system but that's not true. You see, other countries have a deep wealth of empathy for others so rather than mock us for the mess that is our healthcare system, our insurance nightmare, and the con-game that is our pharmaceutical industry, other countries feel pity for us. Friends from other countries ask me regularly to come live in their country because they know how much I pay for Asthma medication that I have to have in order to live. It's medication I could get for a fraction of the price in other countries and that I have to scrimp and save for in a country where I am one of the people who actually has affordable insurance. It's just insurance that doesn't cover the one drug I need in order to keep breathing.
The new documentary, Pay or Die, from directors Rachel Dyer and Scott Alexander Ruderman is far more harrowing than even my modest struggle every few months to purchase asthma medication. Pay or Die is about how pharmaceutical companies are gouging people who can't live without insulin. Let me be clear, they are gouging people who can't live without insulin. The cost to produce insulin versus the price that patients must pay for insulin is a four figure profit mark up for the three companies that produce 90% of the insulin made in America. These companies sell insulin in America at 4 figure prices whereas you can buy insulin in Canada, Great Britain, or Switzerland for a between 15 and 20 bucks.
This means that poor Americans are dying because they can't afford to purchase a drug that they need to stay alive. Pay or Die opens its story on just one of those deaths. A 24 year old man making minimum wage could not afford to buy his insulin for his Type 1 Diabetes. He was hoping that he could ration what little insulin he had until his next payday. His friend went to pick him up for work and found him passed out on the floor of his apartment. He had passed away because he'd not been able to afford more insulin and his payday did not arrive in time.
If you don't know about Type 1 Diabetes, the fact is, you can't simply go a few days without insulin. It's deadly to not have insulin on hand. But, this young man could not afford it and insurance and an apartment and a vehicle so he was trying to get through from one paycheck to the next. The bill for his monthly insulin was in the range of $1500 dollars per month. This is because the price of Insulin, in just the last 5 years has gone up over 600%. The three companies that produce 96% of all of the insulin in America have profits in the billions and insulin is a top profit driver for those companies.
And that's because people cannot live without insulin. Hence the title of the documentary, Pay or Die. We're supposed to be the greatest country in the world with the greatest free market economy. And yet, we've allowed three pharmaceutical companies to take control of one of the most necessary drugs on the planet and price fix that drug to create massive profits and no one is doing a damned thing about it. Pay or Die goes on to tell the story of a woman with Type 1 Diabetes who had a daughter who developed Type 1 Diabetes. The cost of Insulin forced this single mother and her daughter to live out of their car because being able to afford insulin to stay alive had to be prioritized over having a place to live.
How is anyone okay with this? How does anyone justify this? It's wrong. There is no other way to see it. This is wrong. Why is it okay for insulin prices to be a fraction of the price in other countries while we pay an exorbitant amount? Why are we allowing private companies to horde life saving medications and charge whatever they want for them? It's maddening to think that we've all just turned a blind eye to this while massive corporations make profits off of killing people. While the rest of the world is providing free healthcare, we have people dying or living in their car so they can buy insulin and somehow we aren't ashamed, outraged or even surprised.
Pay or Die is a must see documentary. It debuts in a limited theatrical release and festival run on November 1st and then will debut on Paramount Plus on November 14th. You need to get outraged. You need to see this documentary and see why you should be outraged. We all need to have a reckoning over the fact that countries with far fewer financial resources than America can afford to have healthcare for all while we sit back and simply accept an inefficient, profit driven, mess that is willfully allowing people to die because they are poor. We should be ashamed of ourselves.
Find my archive of more than 20 years and nearly 2000 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies.blogspot.com. Find my modern review archive on my Vocal Profile, linked here. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean. Follow the archive blog on Twitter at SeanattheMovies. Listen to me talk about movies on the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast. If you have enjoyed what you have read, consider subscribing to my work on Vocal. If you'd like to support my writing, you can do so by making a monthly pledge or by leaving a one time tip. Thanks!
About the Creator
Sean Patrick
Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.
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