30.3 million people in the US have diabetes. Not all of them need insulin, but even those that do are millions of people, and lots of them are poor. It'd be a major cause of death if they couldn't get insulin. This means they are getting it somehow.

Most Type1 insulin-dependent diabetics start young, so it’s in the manufacturer’s interest to get you on their insulin for free in hopes that you get coverage later in life.

For type 2 diabetics, most are in or will be covered by Part D, so the manufacturers do the same thing.

But for a one-off treatment for those the middle aged, like the new HepC treatments, manufacturers don’t have the same incentives.