Bipartisan surge in Congress to cap insulin costs before Shaheen’s departure

As Jeanne Shaheen nears the end of her Senate tenure, a cross-party effort gains momentum to limit insulin out-of-pocket costs amid soaring prices and public health concerns.

As her Senate career draws to a close, Jeanne Shaheen is making one final push on an issue that has defined much of her time in Washington: the price of insulin. The New Hampshire Democrat, who plans to leave office when her term ends in January, is pressing Congress to act on the INSULIN Act, which would limit monthly out-of-pocket insulin costs to $35 for people with private insurance and create a pilot programme for uninsured patients.

The effort has built unusual bipartisan momentum. Shaheen’s office says the bill now has 22 bipartisan senators on board, and the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee approved it in late July. A companion bill was introduced in the House on 2 September by a cross-party group of lawmakers. The American Diabetes Association has backed the measure, saying it could help address an affordability problem affecting more than 40 million Americans with diabetes.

The case for action is grounded in the numbers. The Health Care Cost Institute found that the average price of a 30-day insulin supply in the United States rose from $271 in 2012 to $499 in 2021. The ADA says 72% of insulin users pay more than $35 a month, while nearly 40% pay more than $150, a burden that can lead some people to ration or delay doses.

Shaheen has framed the issue as both a policy question and a personal one, pointing to her granddaughter’s type 1 diabetes. At a recent health-care roundtable at Lamprey Health in Nashua, she said the measure would offer relief to families struggling with the cost of a medicine they cannot do without. The Endocrine Society and diabetes advocacy groups have also endorsed the bill, arguing that it would widen access while preserving the existing Medicare cap created under the Inflation Reduction Act.