Sean McKee spent his early years in Crawfordsville, and last week, he spoke with college-bound Athenians interested in pursuing engineering careers. He’s an Assistant Director of Recruitment for Purdue’s Office of Future Engineers (OFE).
As a child, McKee was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. This year, with changes to his employer-based health plan, he faced financial hardship. Changes to Purdue’s benefits forced him to make a choice: either find another job or move back in with his parents at the age of 29. His story echoes the binds that so many Hoosiers face as employers reduce benefits and increase employees’ premiums and deductible rates.
His story is a powerful window into the consequences and shows why employee voices urgently need a seat at the table with their employer’s decision-makers. In this case, McKee has begun a campaign with Purdue’s leadership, petitioning for the University to live up to the values it espouses: that its people are its greatest resources.
On January 1, 2025, Purdue switched to AffirmedRx, a “pharmacy benefits manager” that claims to increase transparency and pharmaceutical savings. The transition, communicated as a move to prioritize patients and reduce costs, brought widespread formulary reclassification. Each quarter, AffirmedRx reviews preventive medications and has already moved many to “non-preventive” status—a change that directly affects how much patients have to pay out of pocket for their medication. Employees are notified roughly a month before their medications are reclassified, but for many, the reality hits at the pharmacy window. In July, McKee posted a receipt for out-of-pocket expenses for monthly supplies and medications. It hit $1,275 monthly, equivalent to a rent payment.
Even after meeting his deductible a few short months later, McKee, who relies on both insulin and state-of-the-art insulin pumps to manage his diabetes, still pays several hundred dollars monthly for necessary medications.
After years in which the CVS Caremark plan covered his treatment with minimal out-of-pocket charges, his continuous glucose monitor (Dexcom) and insulin pump (Omnipod) moved to the non-preventive list, with monthly costs jumping to $382 and $580, respectively, before his deductible was met.
The financial blow was severe enough that McKee renewed his teaching license and weighed his options before moving back in with his parents for the time being. He believes his situation is mild compared to others, some of whom are paying up to $3,500 monthly for their medications.
The reclassification affected a staggering array of medications: not just for diabetes, but for blood pressure, asthma, ADHD, cancer treatments, mental health and more. The list of preventative medications is now a narrow list that includes contraceptives, some pregnancy and HIV-prevention drugs, and select vaccines. The changes shift medication costs from insurance companies to employee households and eat up significant portions of Purdue employees’ living expenses.
Some limited relief came in the form of Purdue’s one-time $1,000 contributions to the HSAs and HRAs for those most affected by the change, but for many, it barely dents the total out-of-pocket exposure, and it won’t help with the coming years’ expenses.
Feeling overlooked by scripted HR communications and frustrated by the university administration’s silence, McKee realized individual complaints weren’t enough. He began organizing—reaching out to other affected employees, gathering their stories and advocating for them at town halls, faculty meetings and before the university’s Board of Trustees.
His group’s central demand is simple: a reevaluation of the new formulary, transparency in how these decisions are made, and respect for the undue hardship faced by Purdue employees whose health and livelihoods are at stake.
In line with the League of Women Voters’ principles—that every U.S. resident deserves access to affordable, quality healthcare, including essential medications—this struggle is about more than just numbers. It’s about whether a public university will honor its responsibility to care for the people at the heart of its mission. By joining together and sharing their stories, employees hope to move the university not just to a better benefits plan, but to a more humane and just approach to healthcare.
If Purdue aspires to lead the nation in innovation, as it professes, it must do the same in safeguarding the health and dignity of its employees—a lesson McKee and his group are determined to help the administration and the public remember.