Lawmakers make bipartisan push to understand soaring price of insulin
WASHINGTON - Two lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle have teamed up to ask three powerful health care industries to explain the rising cost of insulin, an essential treatment for people with diabetes.
Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by a team of biochemists and physicians who sold the patent to a university for $3. The drug was once available for less than $1 per vial, but newer forms have been introduced at ever-higher prices - and they keep climbing. A form of insulin that carried a list price of $17 per vial in 1997 cost $138 in 2016. Another form that launched two decades ago at $21 per vial rose to $255.
Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Tom Reed, R-N.Y., are both parents of children with type 1 diabetes and leaders of the Congressional Diabetes Caucus. They requested a meeting from the organizations that represent the drug companies that make insulin, the insurance companies that cover the drug and the pharmacy benefit managers that negotiate prices on insurers' behalf. In letters to all three, they ask for help in untangling the complicated role each business plays in the price of insulin.
"Insulin is a life-sustaining drug for which there is no substitute," DeGette and Reed wrote. "For those who need it, not taking insulin can lead to poor health outcomes, complications, and even death. However, people skip doses, fail to pay rent or buy groceries, and even resort to an insulin 'black market' in order to afford their insulin. No one should be forced to make these incredibly difficult choices."
Read more: http://www.daily-journal.com/news/nation/lawmakers-make-bipartisan-push-to-understand-soaring-price-of-lifesaving/article_fca4ccb5-c972-5d0a-9aa0-b5f628401687.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
