The Iowa House, for the second year in a row, has passed a bill to limit the co-payments for insulin to a hundred dollars for a one-month’s supply.
Patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes take insulin to control their blood sugar, but the cost of the drug has skyrocketed. Representative Liz Bennett, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, said that has caused patients to take less insulin than prescribed — or not buy it at all.
“Insulin is indeed a life-saving medication and no one should go broke simply just to try to preserve their life by using insulin,” Bennett said.
Seven million Americans take insulin daily and a dozen states have established co-payment limits on insulin. A bill to set a $100-a-month co-payment limit for insulin purchases in Iowa cleared the House last year, but did not pass the Iowa Senate.
At the federal level, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley released a report early this year blasting the pharmaceutical industry for insulin price hikes. Grassley said there is “clearly something broken when a product like insulin that’s been on the market longer than most people have been alive skyrockets in price.”