North Dakota advocates plan to continue pushing for insulin price cap

A group of families and advocates met with Gov. Doug Burgum Tuesday, May 28 at the North Dakota Capitol to commemorate a recent law limiting the price of insulin for those on state employee health insurance.

For those on that specific plan, out-of-pocket costs for a monthly supply of insulin are capped at $25. The law sets the same monthly price cap on medical supplies used to administer insulin.

Danelle Johnson, who testified in support of the bill in 2023, said she has mixed feelings about the legislation. The original proposal would have implemented a cap for all North Dakotans, but lawmakers amended it to only affect those on health insurance managed by the Public Employees Retirement System.

The legislation represents a significant step forward, Johnson said. She just wishes the price caps were accessible to more people.

“We have to accept sometimes smaller steps along the way, versus an all-or-nothing,” said Johnson, whose daughter Danika has Type 1 diabetes. “Because otherwise it’s just an all-or-nothing fight all the time, and nothing gets done.”

Insulin, which is needed to treat diabetes, can cost hundreds of dollars per vial. According to a 2023 report by the Health Care Cost Institute, the average monthly cost of insulin in America increased from $271 a month in 2012 to around $499 in 2021.

The high costs may lead diabetes patients to ration their insulin supply or forego treatment altogether — which can cause life-threatening health complications.

About 100,000 Americans died from diabetes in 2022, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s about the same number of deaths the CDC reported for drug overdoses that same year.

“So many people have been unable to afford medicine,” said state Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, the primary sponsor of the bill.

Another mother-daughter pair pushing for insulin reforms, Angela and Nina Kritzberger, were also present at Tuesday’s ceremony.

The Johnsons and Kritzbergers said they both know of children who have had to be airlifted to the hospital because they didn’t have enough insulin treatment.

Nina Kritzberger said she worries about losing friends who also have diabetes.

“I just hope I don’t see a text or Facebook post where their parents say they’re gone because we couldn’t get it,” she said. “Because that shouldn’t even be in our mind.”

The group is working to build support for broader reforms in the next legislative session, Mathern said.

The legislation has been in effect since Aug. 1, 2023, and expires July 31, 2025. Legislative Council estimated the legislation would cost the state about $900,000 over the 2023-2025 budget cycle.

While the measure was signed by Burgum over a year ago, the signing ceremony was delayed because of scheduling conflicts, Mathern said.

The federal government also set a $35 monthly price limit on insulin for Medicaid patients in the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022.

This story was originally published on NorthDakotaMonitor.com