State lawmakers around the country are following Colorado’s lead in filing legislation that would place a cap on monthly insulin copays for diabetics. Most of the bills that have been filed so far follow the model of the Colorado law that was enacted in May, which caps monthly copays for insulin at $100, regardless of the amount needed by a given patient.
But at least one state is more ambitious. The bill introduced by Massachusetts Sen. Cindy Friedman (D) would cap copays at $25 per month and also would create a mechanism for the state to begin monitoring the cost of other drugs considered essential to the public health.
Friedman told Bloomberg Law that she thinks $100 per month is too high for insulin-dependent diabetics, especially for patients who use more than one drug, each subject to a separate copay. “But there’s certainly no moral universe, or economic universe, in which the price of insulin should be what it is now.”