Bill proposed to 2022 legislature would lower price of insulin in Washington state
Washingtonians could soon be spending less for insulin.
A new bill to lower insulin costs has been introduced by Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, prior to the beginning of the 2022 legislative session.
Senate Bill 5546 would put a $35 price cap on a 30-day supply of the life-saving drug for diabetic patients in Washington.
A similar bill sponsored by Keiser was passed in 2020 that put a $100 cap on a monthly supply of insulin. However, that legislation has a sunset clause attached that will expire at the end of 2022.
Like the 2020 bill, the latest bill also has a sunset clause and would expire at the end of 2024. Keiser noted too that the proposed bill isn’t as broad as she and other legislators would like it to be. For example, the law would not apply to Medicare without a federal insulin cap in place.
Keiser said that she hopes the federal government will step in before the next expiration date to lower costs for patients nationally. Past attempts at passing legislation for a federal insulin price cap have thus far been unsuccessful.
“Congress is killing us,” she said. “Insulin is the difference between life and death for some people.”
Insulin prices tripled in the US between 2002 and 2013. While the US only accounts for 15 percent of the worldwide insulin market, 50 percent of insulin-related revenue globally comes from America. In many other countries, insulin is often low-cost if not entirely free.
Insulin was created just over 100 years ago and the original creators initially sold the patent for only $1 to make the drug widely affordable and available to everyone. Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi currently control 96 percent of the global insulin market. Though not the only producers worldwide, the US is at the mercy of just those three manufacturers.
The high cost of insulin leads to many deaths yearly, but lack of access to insulin globally is another contributor.
Keiser noted that advocacy groups such as “Washington #Insulin4all” have been effective at educating the public as well as other legislators to the importance of making insulin more affordable. Because of this, she said, she doesn’t see any problems with getting the proposed legislation passed.
Although the previous bill had bipartisan support, several Republicans in both the House and Senate voted against the legislation.
Lobbyists for insurance companies were the biggest opponents to the last bill. They argued that insulin price caps would only lead to manufacturers raising the price altogether. Keiser expects it will be no different this time.
According to the Washington Department of Health, 1 in 11 Washingtonians live with diabetes, and diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the state.
Additionally, before COVID-19, diabetes was the primary diagnosis for over 10.000 hospitalizations in the state. There is no cure for the disease.
