Placing a limit on insulin prices in Washington does more than help consumers in the state. It also shines a spotlight on the need for congressional action regarding drug prices.
Gov. Jay Inslee last week signed Senate Bill 5729, establishing a permanent $35-a-month cap on the cost of insulin, which is used to treat diabetes. The legislation makes permanent a cap that was set to expire at the end of this year, and it was passed unanimously in the state Senate and by a 95-2 vote in the House.
Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, who introduced the bill, said: “Insulin is a lifesaving drug that was developed a century ago. In Canada, you can get it for $5. But in our country, it can cost hundreds of dollars. That means people die because they can’t afford insulin.”
A 2020 study by the RAND Corporation found that the average cost of insulin in the United States was $98.70 — more than four times as much as the next-highest country in the study. In European nations, the cost ranged from $10 to $12.
This is consistent with other drug prices in the United States. Comparisons of similar medications across countries routinely show that U.S. prices are significantly higher than in other developed nations.
Bloomberg reported last year that the average American spends about $1,300 a year on prescription drugs. “While private insurers and government programs pick up the biggest share of the bill,” the report says, “high drug costs are ultimately passed on to members of the public through the premiums they pay to keep their insurance policies active and the taxes they pay to the government.”
Part of those payments go to the research and development of new drugs — an important function of the pharmaceutical industry. Yet a 2020 report from the National Institutes of Health found that the industry’s profit margin was 77 percent — a fact that suggests price gouging to the detriment of people who rely on prescription drugs.
Because of its widespread use and its vital importance to those who use it, insulin has become the primary symbol of the issues surrounding drug prices. According to the American Diabetes Association, 8.4 million Americans use insulin to regulate their blood sugar. Left unchecked, diabetes can cause heart disease, blindness and kidney disease.
Yet Congress has been reluctant to address the matter. A push by Democrats to limit the cost of insulin was opposed by most Republicans and failed last year, except for people on Medicare, prompting states such as Washington to take action on their own.
President Joe Biden has called for a nationwide cap on insulin prices. But Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has responded: “It’s time for the president to abandon his socialist price schemes and work across the aisle to make insulin products more affordable without jeopardizing insulin competition and innovation.”
Indeed, if alternatives to price caps are available, Biden and congressional Democrats should be willing to listen. But for now the losers are American consumers who are subjected to quickly increasing costs for insulin and other necessary medications.
Upon signing the Washington law, Inslee said: “Permanently capping insulin costs at $35 a month is one way we aren’t waiting for federal action to rein in health care costs for thousands of Washingtonians. I’m proud of all the efforts that brought this bill to my desk today.”
The key phrase in all that is “waiting for federal action.”
