FRANKFORT, Ky. — A bill to limit cost-sharing requirements for insulin has passed the state House and gone to the Senate.
the co-pay for a 30-day supply of insulin at
$100. (Photo by Melissa Patrick)
“I’m sure with the bipartisan support over here and the governor’s support, we’ll have a lot of support over there too,” sponsor Danny Bentley, said after the House passed the bill without dissent Feb. 19.
Gov. Andy Beshear endorsed the bill, which has a total of 74 sponsors, at a Capitol news conference the day before.
“Health care is a human right, but tragically right now there are far too many Kentuckians who are at risk of losing their life or permanently damaging their health because they cannot afford their daily supply of insulin,” Beshear said. “This is unacceptable and dangerous, and lawmakers can act by immediately passing legislation to help thousands of fellow Kentuckians. Let’s let Kentucky be one of the first to act. We need to cap insulin costs because it’s the right thing to do.”
While many states are considering legislation to cap monthly insulin costs, so far only two have passed such a law: Colorado and Illinois.
House Bill 12 would require state-regulated health-insurance plans to cap a patient’s cost for a 30-day supply of each insulin prescription at $100 “regardless of the amount or type of insulin needed to meet the covered person’s insulin needs.” It does not include Medicaid, Medicare or self-insured government plans.
The bill passed with a House floor amendment to ensure that an insurer cannot increase its cost-sharing requirements if its current requirement is less than $100 for a 30-day supply of insulin.
Insulin is a hormone that regulates the amount of glucose in the blood, and a lack of it causes diabetes. People with Type I diabetes can’t make insulin, so they must inject it to control their blood sugar and stay alive. People with Type II diabetes, which is more common, can produce some insulin, but not enough. Type II is usually treated with diet, exercise and oral medications.
Bentley, a pharmacist from Russell in Greenup County, said more than 500,000 Kentuckians have diabetes, which amounts to about one in eight, and about 50,000 more either have pre-diabetes or have diabetes but haven’t been diagnosed. He said diabetes costs the state upwards of $6 billion a year in health-care costs.
He said that in the last 14 years, the cost of insulin has gone up 550 percent, causing some diabetics to ration their supply or skip doses, which can lead to severe health problems or death.
“This is actually needed for survival,” said Bentley, who has Type I diabetes.
Democratic Rep. Charles Booker of Louisville, who also has Type I, said with emotion that he was voting yes for his daughters and for his mother, who sometimes didn’t even have $100 to buy the insulin he needed to stay alive.
“This bill is an important step forward, making sure that Kentuckians can live a gainful life no matter the ZIP code or how much money they have in their pocket,” Booker said. “It’s not a partisan thing. It’s something that we all should be fighting for.”
Rep. Patti Minter, D-Bowling Green, whose son has Type I diabetes, said the bill doesn’t go far enough. “This bill does not do everything that many of us want done,” she said. “We have work to do to have insulin for all, but this is an excellent start.”
Melissa Patrick is a reporter for Kentucky Health News, an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. She has received several competitive fellowships, including the 2016-17 Nursing and Health Care Workforce Media Fellow of the Center for Health, Media & Policy, which allowed her to focus on and write about nursing workforce issues in Kentucky; and the year-long Association of Health Care Journalists 2017-18 Regional Health Journalism Program fellowship. She is a former registered nurse and holds degrees in journalism and community leadership and development from UK.
