Insulin costs 10 times more in the U.S. than in any other industrialized country. Most Republicans in Congress vote against changing that.

Of the nearly 40 million people who have diabetes in America, 25% or 7.4 million need to take insulin regularly… for the rest of their lives… or they die… and the manufacturers know this.

Combine this vital urgency to access insulin, with its high price, with health insurance that is unaffordable to many, and the very high obesity rate in America that spawns particularly high rates of diabetes, and you have a recipe for disaster. Don’t take our word for it. Read the link below from the Proceeds of the Mayo Clinic, one of the most authoritative medical institutions in the world. Here is a story the review author tells of a typical diabetic patient that encapsulates the issue: 

“Alec Smith was 23 when he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He worked as a restaurant manager in Minnesota. At age 26, he could no longer stay on his mother’s health care insurance plan and needed to find his own coverage. On June 1, 2017, he was on his own. The insurance available to him came with a $7600 deductible and a monthly premium of approximately $440. Because he could not afford this, Alec decided to temporarily forego insurance coverage and purchase insulin with cash. Unfortunately for him, the cash price of insulin was far beyond his means. He decided to try and ration the amount of insulin he took till he had enough savings to purchase insurance. Sadly, on June 27, 2017, he was found dead in his apartment of diabetic ketoacidosis.”

What’s behind this problem? Insulin pricing results from the opposite of a free market. Patients are desperate to get a lifesaving drug. As the Mayo article states, “The manufacturers of insulin know that patients who need it will spend whatever it takes to acquire it, regardless of price. It is a matter of life and death.” Only three companies control virtually the whole market, and Medicare and Medicaid are prohibited from negotiating lower prices based on their purchase power. Also, drug companies can keep filing patents on minor improvements to extend their monopolies, and suppress lower cost generic biosimilar versions with lawsuits to limit new competition. So, they can increase prices at will.   

As a result, according to the Mayo Clinic report, “the price of insulin has risen at a rate far higher than the rate of inflation. One vial used to cost $21 in 1999, but cost $332 in 2019, reflecting a price increase of more than 1000%. In contrast, insulin prices in other developed countries have stayed the same.”

And what have politicians been doing about it? Well after having stopped the Biden administration from passing a law that would allow Medicare to negotiate better prices, on March 31, 193 Republicans voted against a much narrower bill aimed specifically at controlling insulin overpricing.  220 Democrats and 12 Republicans voted to pass the Affordable Insulin Now Act which would cap insulin prices at either $35 a month or 25% of an insurance plan's negotiated price — whichever is lower. 

Most Republicans opposed the measure, saying it would give the government too much say in healthcare, and that it was a “socialist drug pricing scheme from [the Democrats’] failed radical tax and spending spree.” They say the measure would stymy innovation. But it’s a 100-year-old drug. The main need is to make it affordable again to save lives while stopping patients from having to ration and underutilize the drug. 

The legislation would take effect in 2023 but it is unclear what it’s fate will be in the Senate.

For more information, see the following:

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(19)31008-0/fulltext

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/house-votes-cap-cost-insulin-35-heads-senate/story?id=83798272