ATLANTA — Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock received an endorsement Wednesday from arguably the country's most prominent diabetes organization for a piece of legislation that would aim to put a hard cap on insulin costs.
The American Diabetes Association said it was endorsing the Affordable Insulin Now Act, introduced last week by Sen. Warnock and co-sponsored by several other Democrats in the Senate.
The aim of the bill would be to require Medicare as well as private insurance plans to cap insulin costs at $35 a month.
"Let's do this thing! It's time we make insulin affordable for millions of Americans!" the ADA tweeted on Wednesday.
In his own tweet Warnock said that diabetes is "not a partisan issue."
"It's a disease affecting over a million Georgians. My bill to cap out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 per month would help folks access lifesaving care," Warnock tweeted.
In a release when the legislation was introduced last week, Warnock's office said people with diabetes can be responsible for close to $6,000 annually in insulin expenses. According to one study, a 40-day supply rose from $350 to $650 just between 2012 and 2016.
According to Warnock, the legislation would lower the insulin costs for more than 1 million patients in Georgia.
“Too many Georgians have or know someone who has diabetes, and too many live with the burden of treating this chronic condition with critical insulin that’s costing them more and more,” Warnock said in a statement last week. “At the same time, special corporate interests are seeing record profits, while everyday people are seeing record prices for drugs like insulin they need to live... Georgians should never have to choose between paying for life’s basic essentials or life-preserving medicines.”