To the Editor:
In 2019, the CDC found that 37.3 million American (11.3%) of the population had diabetes, with an additional 1.4 million diagnosed each year. Type 2 diabetes is being found even in teenagers. The medication that keeps many of these Americans alive is insulin. In the United States, insulin costs over $98/unit (monthly cost up to $1,000), whereas the rest of the world pays less than $10/unit.
The Democratic proposal would limit price increases on all prescription drugs, improve Medicare’s drug coverage, and allow the government to negotiate directly on the price of some drugs used by Medicare patients while also limiting insulin co-payments. It would also provide insulin coverage for people without health insurance.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) tweeted on Sunday after the debate over a component of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that would have capped the cost of insulin at $35. He said that he had voted to make insulin available for pennies on the dollar, and that it was Democrats who blocked it. Video of the vote showed clearly that Grassley had voted “No” for insulin cost relief. Does he think his voters won’t notice his lie about his vote?
What happened: the Parliamentarian decided that the insulin bill was not subject to the rules for reconciliation (requiring a simple majority vote). To pass as a regular bill, it needed “Yes” votes from 10 Republicans to join the unanimous Democrats. Since only 7 Republicans joined the Democrats, the bill went to defeat and Congress failed to deliver the benefit to our citizens.
The Democrats did not deny insulin relief. The Republicans did. Providing it was just not as important as “owning the libs.” Or telling the truth.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore