Skip to content
‘An Arm and a Leg’: Checking Up on California’s DIY Insulin Project
Podcasts

‘An Arm and a Leg’: Checking Up on California’s DIY Insulin Project


Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen.

Click here for a transcript of the episode.


This year, the state of California put up $100 million to begin manufacturing its own insulin and sell it cheaply. How’s it going to work? (Is it going to work?)

The price of insulin could be the starkest example of an out-of-control health care system: More than 7 million Americans need it daily to survive, and some die because they can’t afford it. But it’s a medicine that’s been around for 100 years, a medicine its discoverers didn’t want to patent.

This episode of the “An Arm and a Leg” podcast looks at how California’s plan came to be, and what might stand in the state’s way.


“An Arm and a Leg” is a co-production of KHN and Public Road Productions.

To keep in touch with “An Arm and a Leg,” subscribe to the newsletter. You can also follow the show on Facebook and Twitter. And if you’ve got stories to tell about the health care system, the producers would love to hear from you.

To hear all KHN podcasts, click here.

And subscribe to “An Arm and a Leg” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, StitcherPocket Casts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.