U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock just introduced a bill that would cap Americans’ out-of-pocket spending on insulin at $35 a month. The legislation would be a godsend to patients battling diabetes. Many of them currently face hundreds of dollars in monthly out-of-pocket costs — an unaffordable burden for many low- and even middle-income Americans. These patients often skip injections and self-ration their insulin at enormous risk to their health, since untreated diabetes can lead to blindness, limb amputations and even death. Diabetes patients account for a quarter of all U.S. health care spending.
It’d be political malpractice for my fellow Democrats to not pass this much-needed bill — but it’d also be a huge mistake to stop there.
Hundreds of common medicines — not just insulin — are unaffordable for ordinary Americans because middlemen in the drug supply chain inflate patients’ out-of-pocket costs. Shining sunlight on these middlemen’s practices would help all patients, not just those with diabetes.
