When scientists discovered insulin more than 100 years ago, they transformed diabetes from an ultimately fatal disease into a manageable chronic condition. Those same scientists transferred their patent rights to their university for one dollar each, believing this remarkable innovation should be widely available to those who needed it rather than a source of personal profit.
Yet, since then, the cost of insulin has soared, placing an unsustainable burden on many of the millions of Americans who rely on it. According to the American Diabetes Association, nearly 40% of people with diabetes have rationed or skipped insulin doses because of the cost.
For many, the cost is a matter of life and death.
One of those Americans is Bek Hoskins from Chelsea. As a young adult, Bek would skip doses to make her supply last longer because she could not afford to take her prescribed dose. On one profoundly memorable occasion, Bek pushed her body’s limits too far and ended up in the hospital. Her husband, Barrett, rushed her through a snowstorm to the emergency room after she had tried to go without insulin for two days. She nearly died.
Stories like Bek’s are why I joined three Senate colleagues this spring to introduce the bipartisan INSULIN Act. Our bill would cap insulin costs at $35 per month for Americans with private or employer-sponsored insurance and create a pilot program to provide insulin at the same cost to uninsured Americans.
This legislation recently cleared a major hurdle when it passed the Senate Health Committee by a bipartisan vote of 17 to 5. While those on Medicare and Medicaid benefit from existing price caps or pay little for insulin, many Americans with private insurance or no coverage still face high costs. The INSULIN Act would help close that gap.
Our bill also includes reforms to promote generic and biosimilar insulin competition and prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from imposing barriers that limit patients’ access to insulin.
It would also establish a national insulin resource center and hotline to connect insured and uninsured patients with programs that can help them obtain the insulin they need. Together, these provisions would make insulin more affordable.
My work on diabetes began during one of my first meetings as a new senator, when I met a 10-year-old Mainer with Type 1 diabetes. I will never forget him looking up at me and saying that he wished he could take just one day off from having diabetes, whether it was his birthday or Christmas. Of course, he could not.
That meeting led me to found the Senate Diabetes Caucus in 1997, which I have led ever since and now co-chair with Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, one of my co-authors of the INSULIN Act. Since I established the caucus, federal investment in diabetes research has increased more than sevenfold, supporting advances in treatment, technology and research.
Earlier this year, as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I secured a record $200 million for the National Institutes of Health’s Special Diabetes Program in this year’s funding legislation. These investments have supported the development of technologies such as continuous glucose monitors, which allow patients to monitor their blood sugar in real time without repeated finger pricks.
From that first meeting with a child who wished for one day without diabetes to Bek’s harrowing experience rationing the insulin she needed to live, Mainers have continually shown why this work matters. We must continue pursuing better treatments and, one day, a cure, as well as affordable medications.
The INSULIN Act is the latest progress in this effort. Continued advances in research must be matched by real relief at the pharmacy counter. By addressing the drivers of high costs and ensuring predictable, affordable pricing, our bill would give patients the certainty they need to manage this disease safely and effectively.
Read the letter at: Portland Press Herald