Bill Would Cap PA Insulin Prices Amid Rationing, Skyrocketing Costs

HARRISBURG, PA — As inflation causes the cost of insulin to skyrocket and spurs health-threatening and even lethal rationing around the nation, Pennsylvania officials are looking to take action.

The newly proposed bill would cap insulin prices at $35 for a 30 day supply. It comes as a nearly identical bill passed through the U.S. House of Representatives and fell three U.S. Senators short of going to President Joe Biden's desk to be signed into law.

"Insulin costs tripled between 2002 and 2013," State representatives Jeanne McNeill (D-Lehigh) and Mike Zabel (D-Delaware) wrote in a co-sponsorship memorandum. "Tragic reports of deaths from insulin rationing have become all too common as people grapple with the skyrocketing price of this drug."

The new bill is an updated iteration of House Bill 460, which was brought forth during the 2021-22 legislative session but failed to pass.

Similar legislation was introduced by Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate in Dec. 2021. That Affordable Insulin Act, Senate Bill 957, would have capped the price of insulin at $30 for a month's supply.

“Nobody suffering from diabetes in our Commonwealth should be forced to ration their life-sustaining insulin,” State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who sponsored the bill, said at the time. “The patent for insulin has been around for close to 100 years and yet out of pocket costs continue to rise."

That bill was never voted on in the Senate.

Zabel and McNeill, both Democrats, say that their effort is bipartisan.

"Capping insurance costs also has across-the-aisle support in Congress," they said. "In both the House and Senate, Republicans have joined Democrats in voting to cap insulin prices at $35 for patients."

A total of 21 states have similar legislative that caps the co-payment a patient would have to pay for insulin. That includes states that are both perennially Republican and Democratic.