By a 232 to 193, the House passed legislation that would cap the monthly out-of-pocket cost for a supply of insulin at $35, a move that would significantly cut the cost for the vulnerable uninsured, ABC News reports.
Drug makers and insurance companies, of course, objected to the measure because they want the ability to charge an infinite amount of money for a life saving drug whose supply they control; that’s not how they described it, though.
“No amount of spin by the insurance industry changes the fact that they determine what patients pay at the pharmacy,” Brian Newell, a spokesperson for PhRMA, drugmakers’ leading lobbying group, told POLITICO. “It’s outrageous that insurance companies are forcing patients to pay more for medicines than what insurance companies pay.”
America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade organization for insurance providers, claims that the solution is regulating how much influence manufacturers have on the pricing of medications, rather than stopping price increases from impacting patients.
So basically, the insurance companies say the problem is the manufacturers, and the manufacturers blame the insurance companies, and neither will do anything to fix the problem.