Affordable Insulin Now Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Madam Speaker, for over 30 years I was the one who was on the other side of the counter who had to tell the patient how much their insulin costs. I was the one who watched the senior citizens trying to decide whether they were going to buy insulin or buy groceries. I was the one who watched a mother cry because she couldn't afford the medication for her child.

I was the one who watched all this happen, and now I am finally getting the opportunity to address this issue on the House floor. I am saddened that it will do nothing to protect those mothers from the pain of not being able to afford lifesaving medications.

Make no mistake about this. We all agree on the same thing, Madam Speaker. We want lower prices for drugs, particularly for insulin. But instead of fixing a broken system, this bill aims to control it. This Socialist plan of requiring every private insurance company across the country to offer certain insulins, not all but certain, at a mandated price will have disastrous consequences on seniors and the 217 million Americans who rely on private insurance.

We all know that insurance agencies will shift these costs to patients with other diseases. Don't kid yourself. This is like squeezing a balloon, it is going to go somewhere else. We aren't talking about the bipartisan solutions that currently exist, like the Lower Costs, More Cures Act of 2021, H.R. 19. That is what we ought to be talking about.

Why aren't we talking about the PBMs, the middlemen? The Berkeley Institute came out with a study last week, Madam Speaker, that said that 37 percent of the price of a drug goes to the pharmaceutical manufacturer and the rest goes to the middleman, the PBM. The solution is right there before us. This is not going to fix it. This is going to control it, but it is not going to fix it.

Madam Speaker, I oppose this. We all have the same common goal, but this is not the solution.

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