A Round Rock State Rep wants insured Texas diabetics to pay no more than $50 for insulin.
State Rep. James Talarico introduced the legislation in the house while admitting he too would benefit, as he was diagnosed diabetic just a few years ago and was shocked when he went to pick up his first batch of life sustaining medicine. “When I walked out of that hospital, I went to go buy this medicine that I needed to sustain my life, and I was charged with $684. Money I did not have. I put it on a credit card.”
Talarico says drug manufactures and insurance companies are taking advantage of people who need to buy insulin to survive. “It only costs less than $10 per vial of insulin to produce it. Yet the price has tripled in the past ten years.”
The State Rep says lobbyists for those same companies have told Texas Law makers the passage of such a bill would impact insurance premiums. However, Talarico adds, in other states where similar bills were made law, those warnings never came to fruition.
Talarico says his Insulin Cap Bill has not just support from both sides of the isle, but also in both the State Senate and House. Noting a companion Senate bill has already made it through the State Senate.
