Bloomberg Government
Insulin $35 Cap Revived by Lawmakers Seeking Affordability Wins
By Victoria Knight and Erin Durkin
Senators’ search for affordability wins to boast about on the campaign trail is leading back to capping the cost of insulin at $35 in the private insurance market and for the uninsured.
The proposal is modeled on a similar measure Democrats included in their 2022 tax-and-healthcare law designed to curb costs for the diabetes drug in the federal health insurance program for seniors.
This time, the private-market insulin cap is being pushed by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is facing a tough reelection battle this fall. She said last week that she added two more co-sponsors to her bill.
Fourteen Republican senators are now signed on, including Sens. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), as well as 12 Democrats.
The measure, which previously earned the support of seven Republicans the last time a version of the idea was considered, could serve as a rare bipartisan triumph for lawmakers in what’s been a divisive Congress.
“Every day we’re gaining momentum,” said Collins of her growing number of supporters on the bill. “There’s a hole here that we want to plug, and that is for people on employer plans and people who are uninsured.”
Seeking Support
Collins and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who are co-chairs of the Diabetes Caucus, have been working on insulin legislation for years. Their most recent version is dubbed the INSULIN Act (S. 4189).
Earlier this year, they got Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and John Kennedy (R-La.), who had been working on rival insulin legislation, to join in on their effort.
Shaheen’s office has said there is now enough bipartisan support for the legislation to pass the Senate.
“My hope is that we can get it on the mark-up calendar for July,” said Collins, who sits on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
The Maine senator also said she’s talked to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) about putting the legislation on the Senate floor, though she told Bloomberg Government he wants to see it advance through committee first.
“I know it’s something that has a lot of support, so we’ll see,” Thune said of Collins’ insulin bill. “I haven’t thought a lot about that one just yet. But, looking for things to do that have broad bipartisan support, that could be one of them.”
Overcoming Roadblocks
In mid-June, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) advanced Collins’ cause when he successfully got her insulin bill attached to a bipartisan generic drug bill with some Republican support in the HELP Committee.
But Senate HELP Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who backed Democrats’ version of the private-market $35 insulin proposal in 2022, held up the generics bill over concerns a pharmacy benefit manager provision might be duplicative of legislation passed in February.
Cassidy said the insulin bill could be considered again in July.
“My staff is meeting with Collins’ and Shaheen’s teams,” said Cassidy. “We don’t want to be redundant of that which is already passed into law.”
Collins also confirmed the staff meeting, and said she expected it to happen soon.
Still, if the insulin bill makes it over the Senate’s legislative hurdles, it will need majority support in the House. Some key GOP House members have expressed openness to curbing insulin costs.
“We want insulin to be cheap and affordable,” said House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.). But, he was concerned that a “flat rate” rather than a negotiated price could affect supply, and said he would have to look over Collins’ bill. “We want it to be affordable and we also want it to be available.”