“Low Insulin pricing was gotten for millions of Americans by me,” Donald Trump recently declared on Truth Social, his social media platform. And “Crooked” Joe Biden “had NOTHING to do with it.”
Trump’s claim is apparently based on his announcement in 2020 that some, but not all, pharmaceutical companies had agreed to cap out-of-pocket costs for insulin — which more than seven million Americans need to manage their diabetes — at $35 per month for individuals enrolled in Medicare drugs plans. This voluntary plan was never actually implemented.
By contrast, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which every Republican in Congress opposed, requires companies to implement a $35 monthly cap on insulin for Medicare recipients.
Trump also issued an executive order in 2020, providing some prescription drugs for free or at discounted prices to low-income Americans served by Federally Qualified Health Centers. When Trump left office, Congress hadn’t appropriated funds to implement the executive order, which had not yet cleared the Health and Human Services rule-making processes. In October 2021, HHS rescinded the proposed initiative “due to........