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Trump failed to cap insulin costs. Now, he’s mad Biden got it done.

Trump failed to cap insulin costs. Now, he’s mad Biden got it done.

PHOENIX, ARIZONA - JUNE 06: Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Turning Point PAC town hall at Dream City Church on June 06, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. Trump delivered remarks and took questions from the audience during a 'chase the vote' town hall. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

By Isabel Soisson

June 10, 2024

Trump’s time in the White House saw no changes to the staggering cost of insulin for patients, and it was two laws signed by Biden that helped lower insulin costs to $35 per month for millions of Americans.

Former President Donald Trump over the weekend attempted to take credit for one of President Joe Biden’s biggest accomplishments: lowering insulin costs. 

“Low INSULIN PRICING was gotten for millions of Americans by me, and the Trump Administration, not by Crooked [President Biden,]” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “He had NOTHING to do with it. It was all done long before he so sadly entered office. All he does is try to take credit for things done by others, in this case, ME!”

In reality, Trump’s time in the White House saw no changes to the staggering cost of insulin for patients, and it was two laws signed by Biden that helped lower insulin costs for millions of Americans.

Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act implemented a $35 monthly cap on insulin for Medicare recipients. 

As a result, nearly 19,000 Iowa seniors on Medicare who use insulin are now charged no more than $35 per month for an insulin prescription and are saving an estimated $725 per year. 

Biden’s American Rescue Plan also played a major role in lowering insulin costs for diabetics. The 2021 law reformed the rules guiding the Medicaid health insurance program to remove a cap on the penalty drug companies pay for raising list prices above the rate of inflation.

In other words, drug companies would be penalized if they kept prices high. 

This prompted the nation’s three major insulin makers to drop their prices for the life-saving drug. Eli Lilly, Sanofi, and Novo Nordisk—which make up roughly 90% of the market—all began offering price caps and savings programs in January to lower the cost of some of their most widely-used insulin products to only $35 per month.

These price cuts are benefiting many of the roughly 8.4 million Americans who need insulin to survive. In Iowa, 10.1% of the adult population has diagnosed diabetes, including tens of thousands of people who rely on insulin.

Pointing to these facts, Ammar Moussa, a Biden campaign spokesperson, responded to Trump in a post on Twitter, calling him out for lying.

“This is how you know Donald Trump has a vulnerability. Trump promised to cap insulin costs. He failed,” Moussa wrote. “President Biden took on big pharma, worked across the aisle and capped insulin prices for millions of Americans.”

  • Isabel Soisson

    Isabel Soisson is a multimedia journalist who has worked at WPMT FOX43 TV in Harrisburg, along with serving various roles at CNBC, NBC News, Philadelphia Magazine, and Philadelphia Style Magazine.

CATEGORIES: HEALTHCARE
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