Co-Chairs of the Diabetes Caucus will introduce legislation to reduce costs for Americans with diabetes.
Click HERE to watch and HERE to download video of Senator Collins’ remarks.
Click HERE to watch video of Senator Shaheen’s remarks.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, at a Member Day meeting of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), co-chairs of the Senate Diabetes Caucus, previewed their upcoming legislation, the Improving Needed Safeguards for Users of Lifesaving Insulin Now (INSULIN) Act. Senator Collins also discussed her Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act and the Geriatrics Workforce Improvement Act.
Member Day served as an opportunity for Senators both on and off the committee to advocate for their legislation relevant to the committee’s jurisdiction.
The following is a selection of transcribed remarks from Senator Collins:
“We are the long-time chairs of the Senate Diabetes Caucus, and one of our top priorities is to make insulin more affordable. Our INSULIN Act would impose out-of-pocket limits for patients with commercial insurance, tackle commercial pharmacy benefit managers, and ensure that patients are the ones who are benefiting from the savings that they negotiate, and encourage biosimilar competition in order to lower list prices. Our bill also includes provisions to help uninsured Americans access affordable insulin. Just this week, I met with a young woman who, a few years ago, ended up in the hospital because she was stretching out her insulin, not taking as much as she was prescribed, because she simply couldn't afford the cost. When the bill is introduced, I would encourage my colleagues to support it.”
The following is a selection of transcribed remarks from Senator Shaheen:
“There are over 40 million people in the United States with diabetes. Over 300,000 of these are children. U.S. families annually face over $300 billion in direct medical costs due to the disease. It is the most expensive chronic condition in the United States, as I'm sure you’re aware, Mr. Chairman, as a physician. And one of the greatest ongoing costs is the daily insulin that people with diabetes need to keep themselves alive. Over the course of a lifetime the cost of insulin can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, we have already capped insulin for Medicare enrollees at $35 a month—this new INSULIN Act, which we plan to introduce next week, will address insulin affordability for children, adults and those who are uninsured. It will do, as the Medicare provision does, cap the cost of employer and private insurance coverage of insulin at $35 a month, create a pilot program to provide $35 a month insulin for uninsured diabetes patients, and it is a direct way to help American families facing economic pressures, and will make people healthier in the long run.”
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As co-chairs of the U.S. Senate Diabetes Caucus, Senators Collins and Shaheen have also consistently pressed to hold insulin manufacturers, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers accountable for the skyrocketing cost of life-saving insulin, and otherwise support patients and families facing diabetes. Earlier this year, Senator Collins secured the reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program (SDP) through December 31, 2026, at $200 million per year—a $40 million increase and the highest funding level in the program’s history.
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