(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Dark Brandon Made Insulin Affordable: Boosting Biden Day 120 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-24 One of the biggest shames of our country is the high cost of basic healthcare, including the sky-high costs of many prescription drugs. No one should have to pick between buying medicine and paying for food and other needs. A lot of that is changing, due to guess who? Joe Biden. For example, Biden has made insulin more affordable, as Jonathan Cohn explained in January. Insulin Just Got Cheaper Thanks to Biden. Insulin is the life-sustaining drug on which millions of Americans with diabetes depend, in order to process sugars they cannot naturally. And its affordability, or lack thereof, is a case study in the long-standing failures of our health care system. The list price for a month’s supply of the drug can be in the hundreds of dollars , which is five or even 10 times the price in other peer countries. Something like a quarter of all Americans who need insulin have traditionally struggled to pay for it, with serious and sometimes fatal consequences . I wonder how many . . . Americans know what Biden has done to make health care more affordable ― and, more specifically, what he’s done to bring down the costs of insulin. So what has Joe Biden done? Well, he’s made two changes. The first of these arrived as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping 2022 climate and health care legislation that included several initiatives to reduce the price of prescription drugs. Among them was a provision guaranteeing that Medicare beneficiaries ― that is, seniors and people with disabilities ― could get insulin for just $35 a month. The provision took effect a year ago and, at the time, the administration estimated that something like 1.5 million seniors stood to save money from it. Indeed, there’s already evidence that fewer seniors are rationing their own insulin in order to save money. The second was a policy change under the IRA: As of Jan. 1, the three companies that dominate the market (Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi) have all lowered prices and made some of their products available to non-elderly, non-disabled Americans for the same $35 a month that Medicare beneficiaries now pay. The companies announced these changes last year, presenting them as a voluntary action to show they want to make sure customers can get lifesaving drugs. But by nearly all accounts, it was primarily a reaction to an obscure policy change in Medicaid, the joint federal-state program for low-income people. The effect of the tweak was to penalize drug companies financially if they had been raising commercial prices too quickly. “This is a smart PR move and to some extent a response to market pressure . . . but drug companies are not lowering insulin prices to be generous,” KFF executive vice president Larry Levitt told me in an email. “They’re lowering prices to avoid paying rebates to Medicaid programs and therefore maximize profits.” In February, KFF’s Arthur Allen looked at the implications of another Biden drug move. Months after drug companies began suing to stop price negotiations, the Biden administration released a framework describing when it could “march in” and essentially seize drugs created through research funded by the National Institutes of Health if they are unreasonably priced. The timing of the march-in announcement “suggests that it’s about sending a message” to the drug industry, said Robin Feldman, who leads the Center for Innovation at the University of California Law-San Francisco. And so, in a way, does the Inflation Reduction Act itself, she said. “I have always thought that the IRA would reverberate well beyond the unlucky 10 and others that get pulled into the net later,” Feldman said. “Companies are likely to try to moderate their behavior to stay out of negotiations. I think of all the things going on as attempts to corral the market into more reasonable pathways.” And there’s more. Allen described efforts in both Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to cut chicanery by pharmacy benefit managers. The FTC’s also taking a hard look at patenting shenanigans on the part of drug companies. The House and Senate have passed bills that require greater transparency and less self-serving behavior by pharmacy benefit managers, the secretive intermediaries that decide which drugs go on patients’ formularies, the lists detailing which prescriptions are available to health plan enrollees. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating anti-competitive action by leading PBMs, as well as drug company patenting tricks that slow the entry of cheaper drugs to the market. And it isn’t just the cap on these medicine prices that’s helping protect people from unreasonable drug costs. Cohn explained: Many people don’t have health insurance, leaving them exposed to the full price if they can’t find some sort of private assistance program. Fixing that has been a goal of the Democratic Party since the days of Harry Truman, and Biden has done his part to help realize it ― first as President Barack Obama’s wingman in 2009 and 2010 when Democrats were crafting and enacting the Affordable Care Act , and more recently during his own presidency, when he worked with Democrats to make the law’s financial assistance more generous. The number of Americans without insurance is now at its lowest level ever . Just this week, the administration announced that a record 20 million Americans had signed up for private coverage through the ACA’s online marketplaces. As Biden famously said back in 2010, when Obama signed the law, that’s a pretty big fucking deal ― and seemingly a relevant one for voters in November, given that former President Donald Trump keeps telling people he would try, once again, to had signed up for private coverage through the ACA’s online marketplaces. As Biden famously said back in 2010, when Obama signed the law, that’s a pretty― and seemingly a relevant one for voters in November, given that former President Donald Trump keeps telling people he would try, once again, to repeal the law if he gets another term. Is there still more work to be done? 100%! Lots more work. But Biden has done so much more than many people guessed could be done. He deserves a lot of credit. AND he deserves to be re-elected. What can you do to help? Your donation will come bundled with others from our Good News community and will show Biden that there are many of us who support him and combine hard work with optimism in our battles for a better America! Want to do something else? Rec and comment on these posts to keep them alive at DKos and share them with others who might not realize how great a president Joe Biden has been. Looking for something else? Here are some other ideas: This is an entry in my ongoing series Boosting Biden. Check the comments for more information on how to find other entries and subscribe. These posts are written by Goodnewsroundup (Goodie), edited by Matilda Briggs, reinforced by 2thanks and WolverineForTJatAW, and supported by several other notable Kossacks! As with all good things, it takes a village. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/24/2208623/-Dark-Brandon-Made-Insulin-Affordable-Boosting-Biden-Day-120?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/