With legislators in Tallahassee for committee weeks in the prelude to the regular session at the start of the new year, two Democrats have offered a proposal to limit the costs in insulin.
Noting more than two million Floridians relying on insulin, state Sen. Janet Cruz, D-Tampa, and state Rep. Nick Duran, D-Miami, filed a bill this week to “cap an insured person’s monthly cost-sharing obligations at $100 for a 30-day supply of insulin.
“In 1996, the price for a 1-month supply of insulin was $21. As of 2001, that exact vial’s price increased by $14 to $35. Now, in 2019, that vial is said to be around $275. That is a 1200 percent increase on the original price,” Cruz said on Wednesday. “There is no reason we should allow people to be held hostage to a price increase that’s out of control and we should not allow Floridians to be forced to scramble for solutions to afford a prescription they need to live.”
“The drug importation plan is not going to happen in the next month or likely even in the next year because the administration needs to carry out the rule-making process,” said Duran. “Many people do not have time to wait, so we are taking specific and direct action now.”
The Democrats pointed to a study which “found that one in four individuals living with diabetes began trying to ‘stretch out’ their doses of insulin by taking less than they were prescribed or even failing to fill prescriptions due to their inordinate costs” and insisted “these cost increases have put patients at risk and even have led to loss of life.”
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