Renzo Downey
Sen. Janet Cruz‘s second attempt to cap insulin costs at $100 per month unanimously passed its first committee on Wednesday. However, lawmakers are already casting doubt that the Legislature will pass it.
The Tampa Democrat’s bill (SB 786) would limit costs for patients regardless of how much or what type of the drug was needed.
Insulin is the drug used to control blood sugar in diabetic patients. Without it, many patients would die.
Most drugs’ cost decreases over time, but the price of insulin tripled between 2002 and 2013, and the per-prescription cost doubled over the past 10 years.
Lantana Democratic Sen. Lori Berman stood in for Cruz to present the bill before the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.
“I’m all for letting the free market work, but it’s not working with insulin, and we need to do something, and this will send a message that it is unacceptable for us to have people suffering in our state,” Berman said.
The committee advanced the bill unanimously, but Gulf Breeze Republican Sen. Doug Broxson, a former chair of the committee, expressed doubt that the proposal would make it to the floor.
“It’s going to probably not go anyplace again this year because what it’s going to do is injure the people that provide our health insurance,” he said. “They’re going to absorb every dollar, and we haven’t spoken to the three major corporations that continually raise the cost of these drugs.”
Still, Broxson called it “unconscionable” that insulin prices are so high that many can’t afford the lifesaving drug. Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi are the three companies that produce insulin today, which he said they control after buying out their competition.
“If we were in an illegal drug conversation, we would call this a cartel, but we’re not,” Broxson said. “We’re dealing with three major companies that have stockholders that make these decisions that they’re going to increase the cost of these drugs.”
Nearly 2 million Floridians, or 11% of the population, have diabetes. A quarter of people with Type 1 diabetes have reported rationing insulin to save costs. Many share their prescriptions with family members if they can afford it at all.
That particularly affects Black Americans, said Fort Lauderdale Democratic Sen. Perry Thurston and others.
Theodus Baker, who heads the local chapter of the Shriners, said every member of his largely Black chapter of the fraternal organization is impacted by diabetes and insulin rationing, whether directly or through friends and family.
“My father suffers from diabetes, and I have four siblings, and we did not know that he was doing this because he has four children who can help him get these critical prescription drugs,” Baker said.
Last year, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order to cap the co-pay for some Medicare users to $35. But lawmakers are looking to apply caps across the board at the state level, as 15 other states have done.
The cap would cost the state an estimated $21,000 per year, Berman told the committee.
“We need to be one of those states that protect our consumers,” she said. “All these other states are doing it. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be doing it.”
Cruz’s bill next heads to the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee. The House companion (HB 109), carried by Fort Meade Republican Rep. Melony Bell, has not yet been scheduled for its first of four necessary hearings.
Despite Broxson’s pessimism, Thurston hoped Cruz’s proposal would pass this year after it stalled in the committee process in 2020.
“I’m hopeful that it won’t be a foregone conclusion that we will not be successful with this legislation,” Thurston said. “I think a lot of people are dependent on us to get the stakeholders to the table, and let’s deal with this issue.”
