About 700,000 Indiana adults have been diagnosed with diabetes, and an estimated 45,000 new adult diagnoses occur each year, according to the American Diabetes Association.

A federal bill under consideration would make insulin, the medication needed to treat type 1 diabetes, more affordable. The Improving Needed Safeguards for Users of Lifesaving Insulin Now Act, or INSULIN Act, would cap monthly costs at $35 for privately insured patients.

Kathy Sego, a former member of the American Diabetes Association’s national advocacy board, said it is important that Congress act quickly. She said many people are forced to choose between buying insulin and paying essential bills.

“If we don’t have this, a lot of people are having to choose between having groceries, paying rent or living,” Sego said. “And when I mean living, I mean surviving or dying. Insulin is like air. If you don’t have it, you die.”

The proposed bill would also create programs to provide insulin to uninsured people at the same $35 rate. It would create a hotline and resource center to connect them to affordable insulin programs.

Sego said she wants advocacy and grassroots groups to encourage residents to contact their legislators and ask them to pass the measure soon.

She said some legislators point to existing caps in several states on Medicare and employee-based insurance. But for people who do not have those options, Sego said, people living with diabetes are left to contact insulin manufacturers directly in hopes of getting a reduced price.

“If you have employee-based insurance, then you’re not eligible to get the cheaper insulin to begin with,” Sego said. “Even though people and legislators may think, ‘Oh, it’s already capped,’ but it’s only a certain group of people that are getting that benefit.”

Additional mandates in the federal bill would require pharmacy benefit managers to pass all manufacturer rebates and discounts on to plan sponsors. The measure would also establish a pilot grant program across 10 states to help community health centers provide affordable insulin.

Source: Public News Service