Westbury’s school district is continuing its tradition of leveraging lawsuits to advocate for the school’s community.
The board voted to add their name to a lawsuit alleging that insulin is unfairly overpriced in the United States at their March 18 meeting. If successful, the suit could result in a payout of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the district, which would serve as retroactive compensation for the district overpaying in health insurance costs for its insulin-using employees, according to Robert Troiano, the school board’s president.
“Healthcare is very expensive. Any opportunity to reduce our costs, or even to get refunds on costs that we’ve already paid, is of interest to us,” Troiano said. “But beyond that, it’s the concept of righting what I think is a social wrong.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, alleges that the cost of insulin has been artificially inflated due to manufacturers manipulating the market for their own profit, according to Ron Austin of Ron Austin Law LLC, the firm representing a list of signees, including the Westbury Union Free School District, in the case.
“Today it costs $2 to $4 to produce a vial, but today’s price might be over $100 based on what companies are charging for it,” Austin said. He pointed out that in other similar countries, like Canada, Germany, and Australia, a vial costs anywhere from $7 to $14, significantly less than the United States.
“Honestly, we believe [insulin manufacturers] are violating consumer protection laws, the RICO statute, unjust enrichment antitrust laws,” Austin added. “We believe that for every school district, every union, every company, anyone who has bought a prescription drug plan that includes insulin that they have been cheated.”
Depending on how the case goes, it could also have impacts outside of those signed on to the suit, he added, including potentially lowering or capping the price of insulin. But he emphasized that it was not possible to know if that would occur at this point in time.
Austin said he believed it was likely neighboring school districts would be eligible to add their names to the lawsuit and depending on their healthcare plans, potentially be eligible to receive compensation if the suit was successful as well.
Troiano emphasized that adding Westbury’s name to the suit would not cost the district any money. If the suit is successful, the district would pay a portion of the money paid out to them to Ron Austin Law.
The lawsuit is still in its early stages, Austin said. He expects a decision to be reached in the coming years.
The district’s decision to throw their weight behind this suit follows the board adding their name to a suit against social media companies last year, according to William Shinoff, the lead attorney on that lawsuit for Frantz Law Group. The firm is representing Westbury alongside more than 1,000 other school districts in the case..
That lawsuit alleges that social media companies owned by Meta ——Instagram and Facebook ——have intentionally designed their platforms to be addictive to children for their own profit, according to Shinoff.
“Over the past 10-plus years we’ve seen an increase in mental health issues with children. At the same time, we’ve seen an increase in school districts’ budgets trying to address mental health concerns with kids,” Shinoff said. “So, we want to make sure districts are compensated for those increased expenditures and provide them with financial resources in the future to deal with these mental health issues that they are causing.”
That litigation, which does not cost the district financially, is not likely not see a decision or potential payout for a few years.
Both outstanding pieces of litigation follow the district’s successful suit against the state alongside other local districts involving state Foundation Aid, which was settled in 2021. That case resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of additional state funding for their district and others since the case closed.
