When the Borders Are Closed and Insulin Remains Unaffordable Written by Mike Hoskins on January 21, 2021 — Fact checked by Jennifer Chesak Gregory Shamus/Getty images Crossing between America and Canada is tougher these days due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, which means many Americans are cut off from an important source of affordable insulin. For years, high insulin prices in this country have prompted many people with diabetes (PWDs) to cross borders in order to find more affordable insulin, mainly in Canada and Mexico. But that ground to a halt when those U.S. borders shut down for most of 2020. One of those impacted is Heather Wood in southeast Michigan, who for several years before the COVID-19 crisis had been sourcing her insulin from Canada. She’s lived with adult-onset type 1 diabetes (T1D) since her late 30s in early 2017, and both her teenage son and her father live with this insulin-dependent type of diabetes too.