Republicans are facing fierce backlash for stripping proposed legislation that would have capped the price of life-saving insulin at $35 from the tax and climate bill.
The long-running ambition of Democrats to include people not covered by Medicare by capping the price of insulin for those with private coverage was proposed in their wider legislation, called The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
The Republicans left the portion that applies to Medicare patients untouched but shot down the insulin cap for other private patients.
The measure in the legislation received 57-43 votes after just seven Republicans joined the Democrats in voting for it and fell just three votes short of becoming the law for big pharmaceutical companies.
The move has left several people angry who lashed out at Republicans, describing them as “sales representatives of pharmaceutical companies” and calling it “unconscionable” that poor people might even lose their life if they are unable to afford insulin.
“The members of Congress who voted against lowering/protections on the price of insulin are not representatives of the American people, they are sales reps for pharmaceutical companies,” Michael Muscato, an Arizona politician of the Democratic party said on Twitter.
Vincent Rajkumar, a professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, said it is “unfortunate” that legislation to cap insulin prices at $35 is not going to happen again.
“The price of insulin and other prescription drugs gives you an idea into why regulations are needed to protect the public in return for the monopoly/oligopoly status prescription drugs enjoy due to patents and regulatory barriers to entry of competition,” he said.
Senator Scott Weiner said his father relies on insulin to stay alive ans asked how many people have to die from “insulin rationing” before a price capping is passed.
“It’s sickening to me that almost every single GOP Senator — even those with family members who rely on insulin — voted against capping its price. How many people have to die from insulin rationing before they stop blocking action?” he said.
Controlling the soaring prices of insulin has remained a major challenge for Democrats as the prices have more than tripled in the last two decades in the US whereas people in other countries pay just a fraction of that price.
According to Centres for Diseases Control, more than 34.2 million Americans have diabetes, with Native Americans, Hispanic and Black people disproportionately affected by the disease. These groups are also less likely to be covered under health insurance.
More than 1 in 5 people using insulin on private medical insurance pay more than $35 per month for the medicine, according to a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Around 7 million Americans are required to use insulin daily.
A similar study by Yale University showed that 14 per cent of those using insulin are spending more than 40 per cent of their income on medicine after food and housing costs.
A Twitter user named Warren Leight slammed Republicans for calling themselves “pro-life” to support the overturning of Roe v Wade and called it an “insulin-price-Gouging-Old-Party”.
“The reality is that we have a system in this country where big pharma is legally allowed to price gouge patients. Insulin is expensive because pharma companies want to maximize their profits at the expense of patient lives. We need caps on insulin and all other Rx drug costs,” a user Hunter Cantrell said.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, raised a point of order on the insulin aspect, saying it violated the Congressional Budget Act, which governs what could be included in a reconciliation bill. This required it to receive 60 votes to stay in the bill.
However, seven Republicans who voted to keep the provision in the legislation were lauded on social media. Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska joined Democrats in supporting it.
