I don't really take Cawthorn at his word and this is one of those times I would be more inclined to believe McCarthy.
Heh... "there will be consequences". Sorta like a parent telling a kid "I am going to turn this car around"... And the allegations were exaggerated/untrue? the congressman made serious and bizarre allegations... so what is it, exaggerated or untrue?
Marjorie Taylor Greene decries the unfairness of consequences for her actions A lawsuit has been filed to disqualify Marjorie Taylor Greene's candidacy for US Congress due to her involvement in the January 6th "Moron's Rebellion." In the spirit of her great leader, the failed Donald Trump, Empty G finds this to be a great fundraising opportunity
Hasn’t Matt Gaetz been rumored to have orgies with underaged girls while bumping on that cocaine? She don’t lie, She don’t lie, She don’t lie …
LOL... and here is noted republican adviser and trump adviser roger stone confirming what cawthorne admitted he exaggerated/lied about...
Apparently... 193 republicans decided to die on that hill. If you are curious... 12 republicans voted for lower insulin prices.
The issue isn't insulin, it is price controls. Price controls don't lead to cheaper goods, they lead to shortages. Companies know where the profits are, and they invest accordingly. If you fix the price of insulin below market value, why would drug manufacturers make insulin instead of statins, sildenafil, or whatever other money making drug is out there.
I remember finding out one of my relatives was "stretching" her insulin by taking lower dosage. It's less about pharma losing money, it's more about greed and price gouge. We're way pass the tipping point. "In 2012, the average cost of insulin per diabetes patient was $2,864 per year. By 2016, it had risen to $5,705. Today, one vial of insulin can cost $250, and some people need six vials per month. ... A 2018 study estimated that one vial of human insulin costs $2.28-$3.42 to produce, and one vial of analog insulin costs $3.69-$6.16 to produce. The study revealed that a year’s supply of human insulin could cost $48-$71 per patient, and analog insulin could cost $78-$133 per patient per year." link There's virtually no competition among the few manufacturers. Opposite of an Adam Smith free market. Should have been a generic insulin long ago. This isn't some cutting edge drug that had high development cost and only been on the market less than a decade, it's insulin.
Those statins, sildenafil and drugs like them are out in generic form now and cost far less than they did when drug manufacturers were pulling in gigantic profits while they were strictly “name brands.” The reason you cap the price of a drug like insulin, which has been out for decades, is to enable millions of those less fortunate than you to be able to afford them. Those drug companies you care so much about have already made a killing off of selling insulin. There is nothing inherently “evil” about price controls. A religious person might argue that price gouging the poor when those companies can still profit from those lower prices is “evil,” however. Other advanced countries have price controls in some instances and haven’t suffered. Example: Mayo Clinic Proceedings Volume 97, Issue 3, March 2022, Pages 573-578 Brief report Comparisons of Insulin Spending and Price Between Canada and the United States Insulin prices have been a hot topic in the United States, where there is a lack of price regulation on drugs, and there have been reports of Americans crossing the border to purchase insulin in Canada at much lower prices. We conducted a cross-sectional time-series analysis comparing insulin spending using IQVIA (Durham, North Carolina, USA) data on aggregate insulin prescription volumes dispensed in the United States and Canada from January 2016 to April 2019 to quantify insulin spending and pricing differences between the countries. We obtained data on diabetes rates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Statistics Canada. The primary outcome of this study was the difference in total annual insulin spending and spending per insulin user between the United States and Canada. We also examined spending on the top 5 most used insulins per year in the United States and the percentage change of spending on insulin products from January 2016 to April 2019. In 2018, the US spent $28 billion (USD) on insulin compared with $484 million in Canada. The average American insulin user spent $3490 on insulin in 2018 compared with $725 among Canadians. Over the study period, the average cost per unit of insulin in the United States increased by 10.3% compared with only 0.01% in Canada. These findings demonstrate that the United States spent considerably more on insulin than Canada, and prices continue to increase. Implementing national legislation for drug pricing regulations using reference pricing could stabilize and potentially decrease insulin prices in the United States. sciencedirect.com
I agree with this and it is one reason why I'm wary of price controls. I do think though this is a tough political stand to take and as another posters said probably not the best hill to die on. What I would like to see is more of a market solution that allows importation and reimportation of drugs like insulin from other countries. Also more incentives to get companies to manufacture more insulin.
I admit I haven't researched this much and am surprised there isn't a generic insulin. I still think the best way rather than put in price controls but to find ways to expand the market for insulin. I do think there is reason to worry that if the price of insulin is controlled without an increase in market producers will just switch to other products.