House passed a bill Limit the monthly cost of insulin The price for insured patients is $35, part of a push by Democrats to limit prescription drug prices in an election year amid rising inflation.

Experts say the legislation, which passed Thursday by a vote of 232-193, will provide significant relief for privately insured patients with lighter plans and Medicare enrollees facing rising out-of-pocket costs for insulin. Some can save hundreds of dollars a year, and all insured patients will benefit from predictable monthly insulin costs. The bill will not help the uninsured.

But the Affordable Insulin Now Act will serve as a political tool to unite Democrats and force Republicans who oppose it to a troubling vote ahead of the midterm elections. For the bill to pass Congress, 10 Republican senators must vote in favor. Democrats admit they don’t have an answer to how that will happen.

“If 10 Republicans stand between the American people who have access to affordable insulin, that’s a good question for 10 Republicans,” said Rep. Dan Key, co-sponsor of the House bill. Dan Kildee said. “Republicans get diabetes too. Republicans die of diabetes.”

Polls have consistently shown bipartisan support for congressional action to limit drug costs.

But Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-Wash.) complained that the legislation is only “a small fraction of the government’s control over prescription drug prices.” Critics say the bill would raise premiums and fails to target victims of The high sticker price for insulin seen as a contributing pharmaceutical middleman.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) says Democrats may have a Prescription Drug Transactions If they waive authorized health insurance negotiated price“Do Democrats really want to help seniors, or do they rather have campaign issues?” Grassley said.

The insulin bill, set to take effect in 2023, is just one provision in a broader prescription drug package under President Joe Biden’s social and climate legislation.

In addition to a similar $35 insulin cap, the Biden bill would authorize Medicare to negotiate prices for a range of drugs, including insulin. It would penalize drugmakers for raising prices faster than inflation and overhaul Medicare prescription drug benefits to limit out-of-pocket costs for enrollees.

Biden’s agenda With Democrats unable to reach a consensus, the House passed only to stall in the Senate. Party leaders have not given up hope of pushing the legislation again and keeping their drug pricing restrictions largely intact.

The idea of ??a $35 monthly cap on insulin costs actually has bipartisan roots.This Trump Administration Created a voluntary option for Medicare enrollees to get insulin for $35, and the Biden administration continues to do so.

In the Senate, Republican Susan Collins of Maine and Democrat Jenny Shaheen of New Hampshire are working on a bipartisan insulin bill. Georgia Democratic Senator Rafael Warnock, with the support of New York Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, introduced legislation similar to the House bill.

With criticism that Biden’s economic policies would spur inflation, Democrats are doubling down on showing how they will help people deal with the costs. On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that a key measure of inflation rose 6.4% in February from a year earlier, the largest year-on-year increase since January 1982.

But experts say the House bill won’t help the uninsured, who face the highest out-of-pocket costs for insulin. In addition, diabetics often take other medications along with insulin. This is done to treat diabetes itself, as well as other serious health conditions often associated with the disease. House legislation won’t help those costs either. Collins said she was looking for a way to help the uninsured pass her bill.

About 37 million Americans have diabetes, and an estimated 6 to 7 million use insulin to control blood sugar. It’s an ancient drug that has gone up in price over the years of refinement and refinement.

The steep sticker price does not reflect the rates negotiated by the insurance plan with the manufacturer. But these list prices are used to calculate the cost-sharing amount owed by the patient. Patients who cannot afford insulin reduce or skip doses, a strategy born of desperation that can lead to serious complications and even death.

Sherry Glied, an economist at New York University, said the insulin market was a “total disaster” for many patients, especially those with inadequate or uninsured insurance plans.

“This will make private insurance for people with diabetes a much more attractive proposition,” Grid said.