A year ago this month ...

Shane Patrick Boyle was a young man who had moved to Arkansas to care for his ailing mother. Boyle was a diabetic who was unable to find work in his new town, so he couldn’t afford the insulin shots his body needed to stay alive.  He was waiting for his ACA application to be approved, but it was taking a long time.  In desperation, he started a GoFundMe account to raise money. He was $50 short of his goal when he died, just two days after his mother passed away, in February 2017.

Remembered by his cousin, "The world lost a

wonderful man due to complications of

type 1 diabetes. My cousin, Shane Boyle,

put everything into taking care of his ailing

mother at the expense of his own needs.

The price of insulin had tripled in the decade before Shane died. The required doctor visits and treatment supplies had increased similarly, and folks without insurance pay higher prices.  It cost Shane his life.

Boyle’s story isn’t unique. Alec Raeshawn Smith was a 26-year-old diabetic who had to start rationing his own insulin after he aged out of his parents’ insurance coverage. He was found dead in his apartment in June of last year. 

Research (by the NIH and Columbia University reviewing 47 studies) has found that poverty and inequality cause roughly 291,000 deaths in America every year. Their research also found that poverty was a contributing factor in many more deaths.

So helping the less fortunate among us isn’t just a nice thing to do, it saves lives, which may explain some of God’s deep concern.  It might motivate us to get involved. The reason the wealth gap should concern people is that life and death should concern people, and the sooner we can be honest about the very real consequences of turning a blind eye to American poverty when we have the resources to do something about it, the sooner we can start talking about real solutions.