In a display of basic decency that a republiclown could never muster, Illinois’s governor JB Pritzker has signed legislation capping the price of insulin at US$100 per month.  Compared to Canada and Mexico, it’s still overpriced, but at least now people won’t have to “ration” it and risk their lives.

Illinois governor signs law capping insulin costs at $100 per month

The Illinois governor has signed a new law that will cap out of pocket insulin costs at $100 for a 30-day supply.

Diabetes affects approximately 1,300,000 adults in Illinois. People with Type 1 diabetes and some with Type 2 diabetes need insulin, but price hikes make insulin difficult to afford for the uninsured, and those whose coverage requires significant cost sharing, according to a release from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s Office on Jan. 24.

“Health care is a right for all, not a privilege and that is why I am so proud that we created an insulin price cap that successfully puts patients above profit,” according to Gov. JB Pritzker.

According to the British Medical Journal, it costs between US$72 and US$133 to produce a year’s supply of insulin for one person.  Not one month, but one year.  At US$50 per month, that’s still a 400-500% profit.  From Business Insider, 2018:

Insulin prices could be much lower and drug makers would still make healthy profits

As prices for diabetes treatments continue to roil consumers, a new study suggests that manufacturers could make both human and analog insulins at low costs and still pocket a profit.

[…]

“Anyone with Type 1 diabetes should be able to buy insulin for under $100 per year, including the long-acting forms,” said Andrew Hill, a study co-author and senior visiting research fellow at the University of Liverpool. “Pharmaceutical companies cannot justify charging governments $532 per person per year in the U.K. and $1,251 in the U.S., let alone similar amounts in low- and middle-income countries.”

As Goldman Sachs asked in 2018, “Is curing patients a sustainable business model?”