Insulin Just Got Cheaper Thanks To Biden. Will Voters Take Notice?
Insulin Just Got Cheaper Thanks To Biden. Will Voters Take Notice?
Let's talk about how Democrats have brought down the cost of this lifesaving drug, because somebody really should.
Lots of Americans say they are prepared to vote against President Joe Biden in November. Among the many reasons seems to be a persistent belief that Biden has accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing” (according to an ABC-Washington Post poll from the summer), or that his policies have actually hurt people (according to a Wall Street Journal poll from last month).
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I suspect most Americans do grasp that Biden supports and wants to strengthen “Obamacare,” while his likely opponent ― i.e., Trump, currently the GOP front-runner ― still wants to get rid of it. But most Americans seem unaware that Biden and the Democrats have also been working to make insulin cheaper, through a pair of changes that are already taking effect.
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. But as of August, polling from the health research organization KFF found that just 24% of Americans knew the $35 cap existed.
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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 great step forward. You can't change the majority of pharmaceutical companies overnight, but it's fantastic that it is finally changing.
Regulation. For all the people that are going to argue that regulation is bad, regulation means forestalling the inevitable profit driven greed of corporate pharmacy.
68not really
eventually babies grow up and adult steps should be taken
US policy on everything is either do nothing or take small baby steps
Roe vs Wade was a baby step that was supposed to be codified but baby steps we were told are enough
-6This is why I don't use the term "baby steps". It is an inaccurate labeling of a small step, engendering it with some sort of illogical inevitability that must grow to maturity.
It doesn't matter if something is a "baby step". It matters that steps are taken in the right direction.
This legislation is a step in the right direction.
30
This article feels a little like a backhanded compliment.
27Yes, i really dislike the articles tone, as if we are children. Overall vibe is like Mom telling me how good broccoli is for me and anyhow im not eaving till i eat it anyway so id better get going before it gets cold
17It's especially frustrating because it seems to imply that Biden is owed fealty and gratitude because he did something good for the people. It's the other way around. Biden owes the people good works, and good public policy. The cost of healthcare shouldn't be as high as it is, and doing something about it is what we ought to expect of elected Representatives.
It also gives him credit for the pharmaceutical companies voluntarily offering insulin at the same price as Medicare pays. It is not due to regulation or negotiation, but a PR move designed to stave off actual regulations. Insulin is one drug, one example that was a perfect metaphor for the unfettered profiteering from the healthcare industry.
They don't want the government to limit how much they can charge for insulin, because it wouldn't stop with insulin. So they lower the price of insulin and let Biden dance around the ring with his arms raised like he knocked out the champ. Thank him! Praise him! He's doing this for you, you ungrateful peasants! He's not a misogynist or a fascist like the last guy, so you better be on your knees in front of his altar, or the bad guys are going to come back.
-3
"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! AFFORDABLE LIFE SAVING MEDICINE IS SOCIALISMMM!!!1"
-GQP
26HISSSS....SOCIALISM!!! lol
3
FOX NEWS ALERT: BIDEN INCREASES PRICE OF INSULIN!
NEWSMAX BREAKING NEWS: VOTING FOR BIDEN CAUSES TYPE I DIABETES!
18If there's anything I've learned in the past several presidencies in my life time. Voters tend to disregard the beneficial efforts one president makes because of their party background. So even if Biden did this tremendous achievement, it's still going to be watered down by the Republican cultists because it wasn't a Republican who did this. They would've preferred a Republican to charge people $1,000 or more for insulin and while being told to be pulling up the boot straps to make the costs.
16The $1000 insulin would be blamed on "Those People" who they decided to target that week.
1
Bbubut he's 80 and cognitively impaired!
/s
12Lets socialize pharmaceutical production these fucks are literally killing us and holding back life saving treatments for corporate profits.
9They wont.
9Of course they won't. The types of people who oppose Biden mindlessly only either pay attention to news sources which will never cover this or they don't consume news at all. They are idiots (largely) and to reach idiots takes something much more stark
1
Cheaper for Boomers? Fucking goodie.
8Yeah, IDK if helping less than 1% of Americans is enough. If it makes sense for insulin why doesn't it make sense for every other drug that big pharma has exorbitant prices for?
8Well, any actual path from here to there can only be traveled one step at a time.
6
Turns out Republicans are very efficient manipulators.
7Or Democrats absolutely suck at messaging.
3Or both...
2
Many people who need insulin aren’t on Medicare, of course. But now, non-Medicare patients also have access to cheaper insulin, thanks to the way another policy implementation has played out.
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.”
So if you're not old or poor, continue to pay hundreds in either scam insurance fees or scam MSRP insulin prices lol.
Also I could be wrong, but I believe the old (medi-X) price was around $50-$60. So at least that's an improvment.
6Still doesn't negate him condoning and funding genocide, funding endless proxy war and starting another, and telling us we are not struggling while ignoring our pleas.
6Listening to the masses? That's the first step towards communism, you godless commie. listening to what the property and business owners say is what the fondant fathers and jesus died for
1O let us love our occupations,
Bless the squire and his relations,
Live upon our daily rations,
And always know our proper stations.
2
Biden has been great
-4Great for the donor class, not so much for the working
-3
All of meds went down since the beginning of the new year. Some of them significantly.
61/4th of Americans know about it? That sounds like a lot considering it's something that impacts far fewer than that.
4this narrative of "joe biden is actually great for everyone it's just that everyone is too stupid to notice how great they have it" while we're slowly being muscled out of the economy sounds like a french aristocrat's last plea from the scaffold.
3Hah!
2biden 2024
-1that doesn't sound trumpy at all
1
would have rather he followed through with that campaign promise to offer a public option health insurance plan like Medicare
instead we get the quarter ass version of all his campaign promises if at all
2According to your link, he did try to follow through and got shut down in the Senate:
President Barack Obama envisioned a public option as a key part of his health insurance reform law, but gave up on it during negotiations with opponents in Congress. As a presidential candidate, Biden proposed adding the public option as a way to fix the shortcomings of the Affordable Care Act.
But for all the attention the public option got during the campaign, it has faded from the Democratic agenda on Capitol Hill.
With Democrats barely controlling the Senate, and universal opposition to his agenda from GOP senators, Biden has had to rely on a special procedure known as "budget reconciliation" to bypass the filibuster and pass his agenda.
EDIT: Adding this video interview of his administration talking about working behind the scenes to negotiate the public option with the Senate. Relevant portion starts at 1:25.
27Where in that quote does it say that Biden tried anything to try to follow through on the public option?
The next two paragraphs go on to say (emphasis mine):
The Biden administration has used the reconciliation process to pursue two bills: a coronavirus and economic relief bill called the American Rescue Plan, which passed on a party-line vote weeks after Biden was inaugurated, and a safety net expansion bill known as the Build Back Better bill, which is currently pending in the Senate following passage in the House.
Neither of these bills included the public option.
The only thing Biden has done about the public option is make promises he had no intention of even pursuing, let alone keeping.
6
without a cooperative congress, that cannot happen. you want a public option? you want full single-payer tax funded comprehensive health care for all? student debt relief? no-cost public school lunches? ubi? higher taxes on the wealthy?
you already know what to do. congress needs to go hard left--and stay there. vote progressive in primaries, vote democrat in generals. every. single. time.
11
Permanently Deleted
0"Biden lowered revenues of hard working Americans with this decision! That means you all are getting less money and no raises this year! Vote Biden out!"
-9While this is great, you Americans should focus more on not getting Diabetes in the first place, right?
-9Less than a percent of Americans have it, most obese Americans are otherwise fine they just have a problem with sugar intake partially prodded along by the corn lobby walking right up to the line of demanding a standard quota of HFCS for food to be sold in the US
1
I don't give a shit about some milquetoast bandaid on a bullet wound.
Universal healthcare, now. I don't care that it's an impossible dream -- start talking about it, start demanding it, start yelling from your bully pulpit.
Be an actual leader, FFS.
Fuck Biden and fuck these useless articles.
-11I don't think Mike Johnson or Mitch McConnell care that much about Biden's bully pulpit. Nor did Manchin, for that matter.
I just wish that people could actually see the alternate universe where Bernie was president, and the proceeded to get very little accomplished because it turns out that no amount of shouting will actually make Republicans vote for your policies.
6but Bernie would not let himself be controlled by corporate interests and kickbacks
Sanders once spent a day putting up fliers protesting police brutality, only to notice later that Chicago police had shadowed him and taken them all down. He attended the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream" speech. That summer, Sanders was fined $25 (equivalent to $239 in 2022) for resisting arrest during a demonstration in Englewood against segregation in Chicago's public schools.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders
everything the democrats shout about supporting is embodied in Bernie
and voting is not fixed sure
1I would have agreed with you 4 years ago, but after Bernie let the DNC fuck him over a second time, I gave up on him, since he gave up on us. Definitely fuck Biden though, but fuck the DNC and the RNC too.
0Tons of R voters support it now too. Now is the time!
-1Woah woah woah, these articles aren't useless. These and others like them together form everything a person needs to form a coherent political argument. It isnt propaganda, no no!
YOU ARE PROPAGANDA.
see, i can't tell what your motivations are. You could be a Russian agent or a Xizoomer or even a trumpet! All of those things are more likely than the idea that thisarticle is misinforming the public.
Because we as americans all know that journalistic integrity is one thing that has never dropped over the last couple decades... Thank God for the telocommunications act of 1996 right?
Because of that glorious act by clinton, we know and trust our news to be fair unbiased reporting. The billionaires that own these news companies are the best of us citizens, and are in their .001% positions in society because they are the very best of humanity; made of wit and of grit and of integrity.
If there's one kind of american i trust to always present news fairly, objectively, and to never, ever twist the truth to grab an extra buck, it's them. Why would they need to? The truth is, their brilliance and greatness is already evident to all.
Unlike you, you disgusting troll. I don't know YOUR motivations at all. Go back to chinastan if you hate America so much
-4