One of the most frequent complications from mismanagement of #T1D is diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). DKA is a life threatening condition often requiring intensive care.

The cost of a hospital stay for this condition averages at over $9,000, and as a country we pay roughly $6.7 billion a year to treat this one condition. Medicare and Medicaid account for a little over half of this cost. [1]

Here's the thing: You can turn off the mere possibility of getting DKA, like a light switch. Today.

OpenAPS is a system to automate the use of an insulin pump. Data comes out of a glucose monitor, and instructions to deliver or not deliver insulin are sent to the pump. As the name implies, it's free and open. You can build it **today** with under $50 in parts.

People using this tool essentially, as a practical matter, stop having diabetes while the computer is managing it.[2] Anecdotally, a friend went from ~3 DKA hospitalizations per year, to Zero hospitalizations since 2019... and suddenly stopped feeling like shit 24/7.

$35 insulin and $35 raspberry pis could, if they prevent even a paltry 20% of DKA admissions, save billions of dollars a year. Countless billions more would be saved through the prevention of chronic illnesses related to T1D.

And if we wanna view it... *that* way... yes, I suppose a properly-managed diabetic is a more productive worker and economic participant. If that's what motivates you.

So let's cap the price of insulin, even for the uninsured, and work on getting open, interoperable management tools out for realistic prices.

[1] https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/43/12/e196/31050/An-Update-on-the-Incidence-and-Burden-of-Diabetic
[2] https://openaps.org/outcomes/