SEN JEAN SHAHEEN: One immediate way Congress can ease families’ insulin costs

Every time I talk to a constituent, I hear grave concerns about the high cost-of-living. That’s especially true of health care costs.

One-third of Americans now report cutting back to afford health care expenses. Poll after poll indicate that health care costs routinely outrank Americans’ other economic concerns. Earlier this year, roughly 75 percent of voters said health care affordability would influence their vote in upcoming elections.

At a time when many families are feeling squeezed by rising prices, Congress should focus on areas where we can make a meaningful and immediate difference. Lowering the cost of insulin is one of them. 

BIPARTISAN SENATE BILL TO CAP INSULIN FOR AMERICANS AT $35 HAS NEW MOMENTUM

Unlike many household expenses, insulin is not something patients can cut back on when money is tight. Nearly 8.4 million Americans use insulin to manage their diabetes. Yet as many as one in five people who use insulin have reported rationing it because of cost, putting their health at risk. For people with Type 1 diabetes, insulin is quite literally a matter of life and death.

Even families with insurance are increasingly reporting that premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket costs feel more and more unaffordable.   

In the richest country on earth, people should not have to choose between lifesaving medicine and paying their bills.  

Fortunately, we don’t have to guess what works to make insulin affordable for the millions of Americans who rely on it to survive. The Inflation Reduction Act capped monthly insulin costs for Medicare beneficiaries, protecting seniors from the high cost of a medicine they depend on every day. 

The results speak for themselves. According to a recent Johns Hopkins analysis, the share of Medicare patients paying $35 or less for a month’s supply of insulin rose from 48% in 2019 to 75% in 2023. Average out-of-pocket costs dropped by more than half.

And it’s not just monthly costs—the Medicare insulin cap has reduced the number of emergency department visits and hospital stays of seniors with complications due to diabetes. 

But Congress stopped short of extending those protections beyond Medicare. Millions of Americans with private insurance still lack similar safeguards against high insulin costs.

Earlier this year, a Mississippi couple paid $194 for a one-month supply of insulin for their two-year-old son. Whether a family can afford insulin should not depend on the type of insurance they have. 

I know this issue personally. My granddaughter, Elle, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes shortly after her eighth birthday. Like millions of families, ours understands the constant monitoring and vigilance that come with managing this disease. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. The success of the Medicare insulin cap offers a clear path forward. That’s why I joined Senators Susan Collins, Raphael Warnock and John Kennedy to introduce the bipartisan INSULIN Act, which would cap monthly insulin costs at $35 for Americans with employer-sponsored insurance while also helping uninsured patients access affordable insulin. 

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Making sure Americans can afford the medicine they need should not be a partisan issue. The INSULIN Act is supported by 13 Republicans and 13 Democrats, including senators as ideologically different as Tammy Baldwin and Tommy Tuberville.

With our constituents calling out for financial relief, this bipartisan proposal represents one immediate step Congress can take to address their concerns in a substantive way.

Support for lowering insulin costs extends well beyond Congress. Democrats, Republicans and independents alike overwhelmingly support capping insulin costs. Few issues command this kind of broad consensus. 

We have already shown that lower insulin costs are possible. Families should not pay more for the same medicine simply because they fall outside Medicare. It’s time to finish the job.