ATLANTA — Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath said Thursday that a bill that would cap monthly insulin costs will bring the vital medication back within reach for people who have seen it drift "farther and farther out of reach."
The bill, the Affordable Insulin Now Act, is expected to pass in the U.S. House on Thursday. McBath was one of its original co-sponsors, and the Senate version of the bill was introduced in February by Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, making the legislative effort a particularly Georgia-led one.
The bill would cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 a month, where currently a 40-day supply runs in the hundreds of dollars.
On Thursday, speaking outside the U.S. Capitol, McBath said the legislation would "save lives for those millions of individuals in this country that are diabetic."
"Why after 100 years is this life-saving medication farther and farther out of reach for those families who need it? Why is it a child born with this disease must spend around $6,000 a year, for life, on a drug that has been around for over a century?" she said.
McBath noted that there have been tragic instances of individuals with diabetes unable to afford their insulin and rationing their medication - sometimes even resulting in deaths.
11Alive reported on one such instance in 2018, in which a 26-year-old died while trying to ration his insulin.
"Why is it a quarter of diabetics are forced to skip or ration their life-saving medication?" McBath said. "Why is it that in the richest country in the history of the world, parents must still stand at the pharmacy counter, devastated by the prices that they see on the screen - knowing that the cost of keeping their child alive may cost a month's worth of hot meals at the kitchen table."
McBath said the bill is "critically important" and that its passage will be "vitally necessary," and that she looks forward to partnering with Warnock as work on getting the bill passed in the Senate continues.
In the Senate, it is currently in the Finance Committee.