On July 29, Netflix began streaming the movie “Purple Hearts” with Sofia Carson and Nicholas Galitzine as main leads. Recently, I decided to watch the movie, the story takes place at the bar in Oceanside, California, where main character Cassie Salazar (Sofia Carson) works.
There she meets Marine Luke Morrow, who is about to go into war for the first time. After fighting about a misogynist comment made by one of Luke’s fellow Marines. Despite disliking each other, they end up getting married spontaneously to each solve their money worries. Since Luke is a Marine, they can split the additional money.
This illegal marriage of convenience leads to both of them having to pretend they are an actual couple, and despite their different point of views and several fights, Marine Luke and later very successful singer-songwriter Cassie end up falling in love for real.
Even though the movie surely was worth watching for the romance and Cassie’s awesome songs, what mattered to me most was the reason for the fake marriage.
The fact that Cassie suffered diabetes and couldn’t afford the insulin that is vital for her shocked me and made me question the health care system of the world we live in. I know that there are countries where easily curable diseases such as colds still lead to death, I couldn’t quite imagine how people like Cassie could just die due to diabetes in the USA. Maybe it’s because I don’t live in America.
There was this one scene where Cassie goes to the pharmacy to buy insulin. The seller explains to her that her insurance company will not cover the costs and that she will have to pay for them out of her own pocket. Cassie responds that she simply can't afford the insulin, and will just try to survive the week without it.
I did some research because I didn’t want believe that not being able to afford medicaments was actually a thing in the USA. After finding out that half the people living with diabetes can’t afford insulin, I couldn’t help but being terrified. How is such a health care system even possible?
In case somebody suffers from diabetes and is unable to pay for the medication, you might want to visit https://www.diabetes.org/.
