Bipartisan insulin price cap introduced in House as lawmakers seek affordability win

Bipartisan House lawmakers, including two battleground Republicans, introduced legislation Thursday to ensure people with private health insurance don’t pay more than $35 a month for insulin.

Lawmakers have discussed the idea of an insulin cap for years but haven’t been able to get legislation over the finish line over GOP resistance to government setting prices.

But two Republicans in contested battleground districts signing on shows that the GOP is trying to address concerns about the cost of healthcare ahead of the midterm elections.

The Insulin Act — shorthand for the Improving Needed Safeguards for Users of Lifesaving Insulin Now Act — was introduced by Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) and Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.).

It’s a companion version of legislation that advanced through the Senate Health Committee earlier this summer . That bill is being pushed by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and John Kennedy (R-La.). In total, it has 28 co-sponsors divided equally between the parties.

Aside from capping out-of-pocket costs at $35, the House bill would prohibit healthcare plans from applying any deductible to select insulin products, expedite the development and review of biosimilar insulin, and establish a hotline and resource center to help uninsured people get access to insulin.

Insulin has long been targeted by lawmakers as an example of the broken incentives in the U.S. health system. The drug hasn’t changed much since it was first discovered more than 100 years ago, and as newer forms of the drug have been introduced, the price has climbed. An estimated 40 million Americans are living with diabetes.

A key measure in former President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act capped insulin prices to $35 per month for seniors on Medicare. That measure passed without any GOP support.

Since then, many pharmaceutical companies have voluntarily reduced their prices.

The House in 2022 passed a Democratic-sponsored insulin pricing bill for both private insurers and Medicare on a largely party-line vote . Miller-Meeks, a physician, was one of only 12 Republicans to vote in favor of it.

At the time, Republicans accused Democrats of “socialist price controls” that would allow pharmacy benefit managers to hide savings from patients.

Despite the bipartisan support, the Senate version has yet to make it to the floor. Concerns over the cost of the bill may keep some Republicans away, though supporters hope that the House introduction will add momentum.

With limited time before the midterms — the House is in session just one more week — the best chance for passage could be during the lame-duck period as part of a year-end spending bill.