One year ago today, Pres. Joe Biden successfully capped the cost of insulin at a more affordable rate for all diabetes sufferers. He went after Big Pharma such as drug maker Eli Lilly to set $35 as the maximum out-of-pocket expense for insulin users. The cost of insulin in the United States is significantly higher than in other parts of the world, which poses challenges for those who rely on it for their health. Often, the cost burden affects families in instances where multiple people in the same household rely on insulin medication. The removal of the affordability hurdle has impacted millions.Insulin is a crucial medication for both type 1 diabetics (approximately 1.4 million people) and roughly 21% of type 2 diabetics (around 6.9 million people) who need it to regulate their blood glucose levels.
Data for the National Diabetes Annual Report and the CDC indicates that approximately 8.4 million Americans rely on insulin to manage their diabetes. Among them, 2.9 million adults aged 20 years or older—equivalent to 10.9% of all US adults with diagnosed diabetes—started using insulin within a year of their diagnosis.