Colorado becomes first state in nation to cap price of insulin (Denver: health insurance, attorney)

[Vision67]

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/05/2...lin-price-cap/

"Diabetics in Colorado who use insulin to control their blood sugar levels won’t pay more than $100 per month for the drug starting in January thanks to a bill signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday.

“Today, we will declare that the days of insulin price gouging are over in Colorado,” Polis said in his office as he signed the bill, according to CBS Denver.

Insulin has been around for nearly a century, but the price that patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes pay for the drug has doubled since 2012, according to the Healthcare Cost Institute. The cost of insulin can creep up toward $1,000 for those whose health care coverage requires significant cost-sharing.

The sudden spike in insulin prices lead to congressional inquiries and public outrage, but Colorado is the first state to implement a cap on what its residents can be charged for the medication. The law doesn’t limit what insulin manufacturers can charge insurance companies, and it’s expected those insurers will pay the difference.

The new law also requires Attorney General Phil Weiser to investigate why drug manufacturers started rapidly raising the price of insulin in recent years, and it tasks the Department of Law with issuing a report of his findings by November 2020."


Price controls? Hmmm. What if all the drug companies just say, "no thank you".

[jwiley]

Good luck getting prescriptions filled if they can send it to 49 other states and charge what they want.

[2bindenver]

You can get a vial of insulin at Walmart without a rx for $25.

[DrDog]

Guess our insurance rates are going up.

[otowi]

Lots of Negative Nancies. At least someone is trying something.

[townshend]

To understand the need for this bill, please read this: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47491964

I support this action on the part of Colorado. The pharmaceutical industries' lobbyists have repeatedly thwarted all efforts to lower drug prices at the federal level.

According to studies (e.g., AARP), American pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world: https://www.aarp.org/politics-societ...st-survey.html

If you practiced medicine, you would understand this, because you would have patients who have health insurance and they still can't afford the medications to treat their conditions. That is my personal experience from the field of psychiatry.

[Dan07]

This sounds good in theory, but I wonder how many people it will have an impact on. I was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic 17 years ago and I have never paid anywhere near $100.00 a month for insulin.

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by jwiley

Good luck getting prescriptions filled if they can send it to 49 other states and charge what they want.

I know this is supposed to paint the law in a negative light, but it really just highlights how messed up the idea of healthcare-for-profit can get, especially with chronic and emergency conditions.

[DrDog]

Some of you are missing the point. Most of us agree that healthcare costs need to be contained, but the laws Colorado is passing will result in higher insurance rates, and healthcare workers leaving the state.

This law doesn’t reduce what a manufacturer charges for insulin which is the problem. Instead it shifts the cost to the insurance company which will then have to raise rates.

[BarryK123]

Originally Posted by DrDog

Instead it shifts the cost to the insurance company which will then have to raise rates.

Insurance companies don't need excuses to raise rates. They are predatory.