Endocrine Society Continues to Advocate for Insulin Affordability

The Endocrine Society continues to advocate for insulin affordability. Although new legislation to make insulin more affordable has been stalled in Congress, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to advance a program to implement drug price negotiations to lower the cost of certain prescription drugs, including several diabetes medications.

CMS recently hosted a series of listening sessions on the drug price negotiation program, which was passed into law as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and gives CMS the authority to negotiate with drug manufacturers on the price of prescription drugs including insulin. The Society strongly supported the IRA, which also instituted a $35 per month co-pay cap on insulin for people on Medicare. We attended the listening session held to discuss two insulins, NovoLog and Fiasp, which are eligible for price negotiation.

We will continue to monitor this issue closely as CMS works to implement this new program. The Society has been a longtime supporter of this effort and recommended allowing the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, including insulin, as part of our position statement on insulin access and affordability. We also continue to urge Congress to extend the $35 per month insulin co-pay cap to the private insurance market.