ICYMI: New Insulin Cap “Huge” and a “Blessing” to one Overland Park Retiree
$35/month cap on insulin backed by Rep. Sharice Davids is now in effect
In January, a new policy capping the cost of insulin at $35 per month started to take effect for folks on Medicare—including Kansans like Julie Cogley, an Overland Park retiree who previously paid as much as $700 a month for her insulin. Representative Sharice Davids, the only member of the Kansas delegation who voted to enact the insulin cap, joined Julie for an interview with the Shawnee Mission Post to discuss the impact of this policy and how she hopes to extend it to all Kansans who need insulin.
Read the interview in the Shawnee Mission Post:
"After developing Type 2 diabetes a few years ago, Julia Cogley of Overland Park couldn't pay $700 a month for insulin on top of two other monthly medications.
Cogley said anxiety hangs overhead knowing her monthly medication costs stack up to $2,100. She doesn't travel or go out to eat because she spends much of her disposable income on medicine.
She's resorted to cutting cable, one of the last places she can make a change to pad her budget, to save $100 a month.
In order to get the insulin she needed, Cogley worked with doctors who gave her free samples to get by.
But that all is changing now that a federal $35 insulin cap is in effect through the Inflation Reduction Act, which took effect at the start of 2023.
‘I really cried the day that I saw that this had been passed, because it is such a huge thing,' Cogley said. ‘That's with me recognizing my many blessings in my life.'
[…]
For her part, Rep. Davids said she hopes people will see how big of an impact the $35 insulin cap has on Medicare patients like Cogley in order to build momentum for to expand the cap to others.
‘Insulin hasn't changed in 100 years and for the price to continue to be going up the way that it is — knowing how many people are impacted — I'm so glad we got the $35 cap for folks on Medicare,' Davids said."
Background:
The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in August 2022, enacted a cap so that no one on Medicare will pay more than $35 a month for their covered insulin product. The cap went into effect for Medicare Part D coverage on January 1, 2023 and will go into effect for Medicare Part B coverage (which covers insulin taken through a traditional insulin pump) on July 1, 2023. Any Part D plans that charged over that $35 limit in January or February are required to reimburse patients.
Davids voted to pass the Inflation Reduction Act and has been a vocal advocate for lowering the cost of prescription drugs, particularly insulin. She previously voted to pass legislation capping co-pays for insulin at $35 for all Americans, and has hosted roundtables to hear about how the prohibitive cost of insulin impacts Kansans. In 2019, Davids released a report finding that Kansans pay nearly 5 times more for brand-name diabetes medications than patients in other countries.