LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, D-Clark County, on Thursday introduced a bill that would cap insulin prices at $35 per month for patients with private health insurance in Nevada.
WATCH | What a cap on insulin prices would mean for Nevadans
Yeager bill would cap insulin for everyone in Nevada
Yeager’s bill — Assembly Bill 555 — comes with less than a month to go in the 2025 legislative session, which is scheduled to adjourn on June 2.
The bill was referred to the Assembly’s Commerce & Labor Committee for hearings and a preliminary vote.
Legislative leaders have a small number of emergency bills they can use to introduce legislation late in the session, irrespective of deadlines for regular lawmaker and committee bills. AB 555 is one of Yeager’s emergency measures.
“With the passage of this legislation, we are placing a hard cap on the cost of insulin for private insurance, no more than $35 for a 30-day supply,” Yeager said at a morning news conference. “This is a promise we’re making to tens of thousands of Nevadans who live with diabetes and have struggled for far too long with outrageous, unpredictable prices.”
Yeager recounted stories from around the state, including parents skipping insulin doses so their children won’t miss theirs, or senior citizens splitting vials to stretch their supply for a whole month.
“This is not, and should not, be acceptable,” Yeager said. “And under Assembly Bill 555, it won’t be tolerated.”
According to the American Diabetes Association, 26 states and the District of Columbia already cap insulin prices. That includes Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.
Insulin price caps for people on Medicaid have been implemented at the national level, initially on a trial basis. President Joe Biden made them permanent when he signed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, limiting costs to $35 per month.
But people on private insurance can pay varying rates, which prompted Yeager to introduce his bill. He said at his news conference that he looked forward to getting the bill through the Legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who is set to introduce his own health-care measure soon.
Barb Hartzel, whose daughter has Type 1 diabetes, spoke at the news conference as well, discussing how critical insulin is in her daughter’s care.
“Insulin is not optional for my daughter,” Hartzel said. “It is not a luxury. It is not negotiable.”
Despite that, she said families are cutting doses, delaying picking up refills or having to choose between groceries and their medicine. “What price tag would you put on your child’s life?” she asked.
Back in 2017, Nevada lawmakers approved a bill that requires pharmaceutical companies to list the wholesale cost of prescription drugs that treat diabetes. But that bill didn’t cap prices the way Yeager’s measure seeks to do.
Local News
A recent Review-Journal letter to the editor mischaracterized Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, also known as the Clark County Lands bill. As the former executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, I wholeheartedly support this legislation, so I wanted to set the record straight.
Sen. Cortez Masto has been working on this bill for years in partnership with state and local governments, conservation groups like the NCL and local area tribes. It’s true that the Clark County lands bill would open 25,000 acres to help Las Vegas grow responsibly, while setting aside 2 million acres for conservation. It would also help create more affordable housing throughout the valley while ensuring our treasured public spaces can be preserved for generations to come.
What is not correct is that the money from these land sales would go to the federal government’s coffers. In fact, the opposite is true.
The 1998 Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act is a landmark bill that identified specific public land for future sale and created a special account ensuring all land sale revenues would come back to Nevada. In accordance with that law 5 percent of revenue from land transfers goes to the state of Nevada for general education purposes, 10 percent goes to the Southern Nevada Water Authority for needed water infrastructure and 85 percent supports conservation and environmental mitigation projects in Southern Nevada. This legislation has provided billions to Clark County and will continue to benefit generations of Southern Nevadans. Sen. Cortez Masto’s lands bill builds upon the act’s success.
So here’s the good news: All of the money generated from land made available for sale under Sen. Cortez Masto’s bill would be sent to the special account created by the 1998 law. Rather than going to an unaccountable federal government, the proceeds would continue to help kids in Vegas get a better education, bolster outdoor recreation and modernize Southern Nevada’s infrastructure.
I know how important it is that money generated from the sale of public land in Nevada stay in the hands of Nevadans, and so does the senator. That’s why she opposed a Republican effort last year to sell off 200,000 acres of land in Clark County and other areas of the country that would have sent those dollars directly to Washington.
Public land management in Nevada should benefit Nevadans. We should protect sacred cultural sites and beloved recreation spaces, responsibly transfer land for affordable housing when needed and ensure our state has the resources it needs to grow sustainably. I will continue working with Sen. Cortez Masto to advocate for legislation, such as the Clark County lands bill, that puts the needs of Nevadans first.
Paul Selberg writes from Las Vegas.
click to expand photos
Las Vegas High’s baseball team claimed a 3-2 home win over Coronado on Friday.
Las Vegas (9-13-1) next hosts Rancho at 10 a.m. Saturday. Coronado (13-14) hosts Chaparral at 3:30 p.m. Monday.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada’s jobless rate is holding steady, but the state is still adding jobs.
A new report from DETR shows February’s unemployment rate unchanged at 5.3 percent, with the labor force growing by nearly 3,800 people.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unemployment rate rises to 5.3% in January
Nevada now has about 1.6 million nonfarm jobs, up 2.2 percent over the past year and 1,500 more jobs than in January.
“This month’s report shows a strengthening labor market,” said David Schmidt, Chief Economist. ”Compared to the report for January, the pace of job gains in the past year increased from 1.9% to 2.2%, building on what was already the fastest pace of job growth in the country. While the unemployment rate remained stable, the labor force participation rate rose to 63.7%, 1.7 percentage points higher than the national level.”
In Las Vegas, employment ticked up by 1,100 jobs in February, about 0.1 percent, and is up more than 25,000 jobs compared to last year.
Reno added 1,000 jobs on the month, while Carson City shed about 200 but is still slightly above where it was a year ago.
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