Bill capping insulin costs at $100 a month heads to governor
Sponsors Sen. Manar, Rep. Guzzardi applaud move to control costs
The Illinois General Assembly has passed a bill to cap insulin costs. (Shutterstock)
By Ted Cox
A state bill to cap insulin costs at $100 a month for many Illinois diabetics cleared the House Wednesday and the Senate Thursday to head for Gov. Pritzker’s desk.
Thursday’s final vote fell appropriately enough on World Diabetes Day, and it wasn’t lost on the governor, who immediately pledged to sign the bill into law.
“Skyrocketing prescription drug prices are an enormous burden for too many Illinois families, and this legislation will significantly lower out-of-pocket costs for the 1.3 million Illinoisans who rely on insulin,” Pritzker said in a statement. “It’s fitting that on World Diabetes Day Illinois has taken bold action to protect our residents’ health, rather than force them to use lower-quality medication or even ration their supply. We are proud that Illinois continues to be a national leader in ensuring health care is a right and not a privilege.”
Rep. Will Guzzardi of Chicago, lead sponsor in the House, cheered the overwhelming vote of 100-13 in favor on Wednesday. Calling it “a very exciting moment,” Guzzardi said it would cap insulin costs at $100 a month for people enrolled in “state-regulated health insurance.”
According to Guzzardi’s committee testimony on the bill, it will affect about 20 percent of Illinois residents, mainly those enrolled in health insurance through the state’s Obamacare marketplace under the Affordable Care Act and those in the state employee health program. It would not apply to larger health plans employees enroll in at their workplace, as they’re governed by federal regulations the state has no say in. Even so, Guzzardi estimated it would provide relief to about 260,000 of the state’s 1.3 million insulin patients.
“It’s not going to fix the whole problem,” Guzzardi said in a video he posted on Facebook. “Certain people won’t be covered, certain people will. But for those who will be covered it’s going to be a big step forward to make sure they’ll be able to afford the lifesaving medicine that they need.”
Guzzardi said the bill strikes at a “symptom, not the cause” of high insulin prices. The major amendment the House imposed was shifting the responsibility to file a report on those causes from the Office of the Attorney General to the state Department of Insurance.
But Manar too cheered the House passage and smoothed the way for the amended bill to be endorsed by the Senate. It passed it in its original form during last month’s earlier veto session by a 48-7 vote, and the amended bill passed on Thursday’s concurrence vote by an even more resounding 43-1. Manar applauded the “lightning fast” action taken by the General Assembly in moving the bill.
“It’s time to fix this broken system,” said William McNary, co-director of Citizen Action/Illinois, at a Thursday news conference in Springfield.
Guzzardi cited how Illinois health companies accepted the bill, saying, “They knew it was not going to be a good look to stand in its way.”
On the federal level, Sen. Dick Durbin announced just last week he was sponsoring the End Price Gouging for Insulin Act, which would set the U.S. cost of insulin at the average price established by 11 other industrialized nations. Durbin blamed price spikes on pharmaceutical companies abusing so-called follow-on patents, which prevent generic drugs from offering competitive medication. On Thursday, he took the additional step of co-sponsoring legislation that would call for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to perform a study into the impact of high insulin prices on patients.