Streetsulin
A Story About American Healthcare
Priced out of New York City from unexpected medical expenses, comedian Jake Matthews moves back home to Delaware and starts selling his own supply of insulin to other to raise money for a chance to get back onstage.
When he joins forces with a notorious local hustler rumored to have ties to organized crime, the hustle grows into a black-market insulin network that's more reliable than Big Pharma would like it to be.
Streetsulin recently placed Second-Rounder at Austin Film Festival 2026
A TV Pilot, a Novel, and a Mission
Streetsulin is an ongoing project being developed as both a drama teleplay and a novel. Version 116 of the teleplay advanced to the Second Round of the 2026 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition in the Drama Teleplay category. Multiple versions have been registered with the Writers Guild of America. Jason is developing the novel in parallel, with completion targeted for early 2027.
Inspired by real events and people, Streetsulin brings into the open a reality many people with diabetes feel pressure to hide: the cost of staying alive.
This project examines how a healthcare system that puts lifesaving medicine out of reach can betray the promise of the American Dream. Despite recent policy changes and measures to reduce cost of insulin, patients continue to struggle with cost and access of insulin. A survey at Yale Diabetes Center found more than one in three patients reported rationing insulin because of cost or inadequate access.
How far will people go, (legally or otherwise) to get the medicine they need?
Writer Jason Hewett started writing Streetsulin in 2019 while raising awareness about type 1 diabetes as an independent activist on TikTok @jasonht1d
He is the author of Everything I Never Had Time to Explain About My Diabetes.