By Ricardo Alonso-ZaldivarThe
Associated Press
The House of Representatives approved a bill that limits the monthly cost of insulin to $35 for patients with health insurance, in the framework of an election year in which Democrats want to curb prescription drug prices during the crisis. by inflation.
Experts say the law, passed Thursday by 232 votes to 193, would provide significant relief for privately insured patients with limited coverage plans and for Medicare enrollees facing rising costs. expenses due to insulin.
Some could save hundreds of dollars a year, and all covered citizens would benefit from predictable prices.
However, the Insulin Affordability Act will serve as a political vehicle to rally Democrats and force Republicans who oppose it into awkward votes before the midterm elections.
For the law to pass Congress, 10 Republican senators would have to vote in favor.
Democrats acknowledge they don't have an answer for how that will happen.
From left to right, Representative Angie Craig, D-Minnesota, House Majority Leader James Clyburn, D-South Carolina, Dan Kildee, D-Michigan, and Lucy McBath.J.
Scott Applewhite/AP
"If 10 Republicans are standing in the way of affordable insulin for the American people, that's a good question they need to answer themselves," said Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Michigan, who co-authored the bill. "Republicans are too suffer and die from diabetes.
Public opinion polls have consistently shown cross-party support for congressional action to cap drug prices.
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But Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington, complained that the legislation is just "a small piece of a larger package around government price controls on prescription drugs."
Critics say the bill would increase payments and does not target pharmaceutical middlemen who are seen as contributing to high list prices for insulin.
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Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Democrats could reach an agreement on prescription drugs if they abandon their proposal to authorize Medicare to negotiate prices.
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Grassley assured.
The insulin bill, due to take effect in 2023, represents just one provision of a much broader package of prescription drugs in President Joe Biden's social and climate legislation.
In addition to a similar $35 cap on insulin, Biden's bill would authorize Medicare to negotiate prices on a number of drugs, including insulin.
Drug manufacturers that raise prices beyond inflation would be penalized
, and Medicare prescription drug coverage would be revised to limit members' out-of-pocket costs.
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Biden's program passed the House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate because Democrats were unable to reach a consensus.
Party leaders have not given up hope of getting the legislation back on track, and largely preserving the brake on drug prices.
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The idea of a $35 monthly cap on insulin has a bipartisan origin.
The Donald Trump Administration had created a voluntary option for Medicare enrollees to get insulin for $35, and President Joe Biden continued it.
In the Senate, Maine Republican Susan Collins and New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen are working on a bipartisan insulin bill.
Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock has introduced a similar bill to the House, with the support of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
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Overwhelmed by criticism that Biden's economic policies spur inflation, Democrats are redoubling their efforts to show how they would help people deal with the costs.
On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that a key gauge of inflation rose 6.4% in February from a year earlier, the biggest year-over-year rise since January 1982.
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But experts say
the House bill wouldn't help the uninsured, who face the highest insulin costs.
In addition, diabetics often take medications other than insulin to treat diabetes along with other serious health problems often associated with the disease.
House legislation would also not help reduce those costs.
Collins says he is looking for a way to help the uninsured through his bill.
About 37 million Americans have diabetes, and an estimated 6 to 7 million use insulin to keep their blood sugar levels under control.
It is an old medicine, perfected and improved over the years, which has seen a relentless increase in prices.
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High drug prices do not reflect the rates that insurance plans negotiate with manufacturers.
But those list prices are used to calculate cost-sharing amounts that patients must pay.
Patients who cannot afford their insulin, reduce or skip doses can face serious complications and even death.
Economist Sherry Glied of New York University called the insulin market a "total disaster" for many patients, especially those with limited or no insurance plans.
"This will make private insurance for people with diabetes a much more attractive proposition," Glied added.