I was thrilled to hear President Biden, in his State of the Union address, call for a $35 cap on monthly out-of-pocket insulin costs for millions of Americans with diabetes. My many patients with diabetes would benefit from this important policy since they have struggled as the cost of this life-saving drug has soared year after year.
Thirty-seven million Americans have diabetes, and many of them are dependent on insulin to live. But of course, it does them no good if they can’t afford it. One in four insulin-dependent people with diabetes ration their insulin due to its high cost.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the situation worse. Tragically, 40 percent of those who have died from COVID have been Americans with diabetes, making the diabetes community 12 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than others. While we are still learning about the relationship between COVID and diabetes, we know that unmanaged diabetes – whether a lack of medication use or missing doses – is a key factor in COVID-19 severity and complications, and an important indicator of whether someone with diabetes and COVID is likely to have a longer hospitalization.
Relief is within reach if Congress will enact the Affordable Insulin Now Act. President Biden wholeheartedly endorsed it in his speech, and legislation has been introduced in the House and the Senate, albeit thus far no Republicans have co-sponsored the measure. Bipartisan support for this bill, which would make insulin truly affordable once and for all, is critical to the future of this proposal. I especially urge Maine’s senior senator, Susan Collins, to back the legislation, the top priority of the American Diabetes Association. Sen. Collins co-chairs the Congressional Diabetes Caucus, so she knows the suffering this disease causes. What’s more, many insulin-dependent Mainers already know the benefits of a state limit on out-of-pocket costs – the state passed its own $35 copay cap in 2020, though that limit only applies to certain forms of state-regulated insurance. I respectfully ask Sen. Collins to consider the tremendous benefits of limiting nearly all insulin users’ out-of-pocket costs to $35 a month by supporting a national cost limit on this prohibitively expensive but life-sustaining drug. (Note that’s still $420 a year, no small matter for many Americans).
The price of insulin nearly tripled between 2002 and 2013. In 2016, a typical person with Type 1 diabetes spent $5,705 annually on insulin, the Health Care Cost Institute reports. The price has climbed since then. The Affordable Insulin Now Act would provide access to $35 insulin to people with diabetes, regardless of which kind of health insurance coverage they have – a commercial plan, a group health plan or Medicare.
Twenty states and the District of Columbia have capped insulin co-pays. As in Maine, these caps don’t apply to all insurance plans. That’s why federal action by Congress is crucial. We all know that our nation’s politics have become increasingly polarized in recent years. Too often, it seems, an idea is a good policy only if it’s your idea (or your party’s). But the need to make insulin affordable is a shared effort, one that transcends parties and ideologies.
Some people with diabetes follow politics closely, and others hardly at all. But they all share this: They are counting on members of Congress, from both parties, to get past partisanship and do the right thing by putting country and constituents first.
It’s time to pass a national co-pay cap to bring economic relief to all those Americans forced to stretch their wallets beyond reason to pay for life-sustaining insulin. Sen. Collins, please join this effort. Your state and your country need you.
— Special to the Press Herald
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