Press Releases

Today, Rep. Salud Carbajal voted to cap the out-of-pocket cost of insulin for Americans on Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance at $35 a month.

The legislation advanced by the House today ensures vital and affordable access to life-saving medication for the more than 37 million people in the United States who have diabetes, including one-third of Medicare beneficiaries and the over 7 million Americans who rely on insulin to maintain their health and well-being.

“I’ve heard heart-breaking stories from Californians who have cut back on their insulin doses or skipped doses entirely because the costs have risen to unacceptable rates. Insulin has been on the market for nearly 100 years, and yet its price has doubled and even tripled over past decades–allowing pharmaceutical companies to greedily squeeze more profits out of Americans who need this drug to live,” said Rep. Carbajal. “The legislation I voted for today would cut the average cost of insulin in half for millions of Americans by capping out-of-pocket cost at $35 a month. I’m committed to lowering costs for American families through legislation like this, and I urge my Senate colleagues to advance this measure to deliver these critical savings to the Central Coast.”

The Affordable Insulin Now Act, which Rep. Carbajal and a bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives advanced to the U.S. Senate, requires Medicare Part D plans and commercial health insurance plans to cover insulin and cap cost-sharing at no more than $35 per month.

Next year will mark 100 years since the discovery of insulin, a life-saving medication that helps millions of Americans living with diabetes.

Despite its century of history, the price of insulin has skyrocketed in recent decades.

From 2002 to 2013, the price of insulin tripled in the U.S., and doubled again between 2012 to 2016. From 2014 to 2019, the average retail price of insulin rose 54 percent.

In the past quarter century, prices for the most commonly prescribed insulins have increased from about $20 per vial to over $250 per vial—a more than 700 percent increase after adjusting for inflation.

One recent study found that insulin out-of-pocket costs among all insulin users averaged $64 in 2017, almost double what the out-of-pocket costs would be under the Affordable Insulin Now Act.

According to the American Diabetes Association, there are approximately 3.2 million people with diagnosed diabetes in California. Health costs for diabetes in California are estimated to top $27 billion.