Insulin Affordability: Congress Hears the Patient Voice

For many Americans living with diabetes, the cost of insulin still shapes daily decisions about health. New evidence released this quarter shows how heavy that burden remains, and new legislation in the House of Representatives seeks to lift it.

On 2 September 2026, Representative Diana DeGette introduced H.R. 10227, the House companion to the Improving Needed Safeguards for Users of Lifesaving Insulin Now (INSULIN) Act, S. 4189, which a bipartisan group of Senators introduced in March. The bill gathered 18 cosponsors from both parties, including Representatives Miller-Meeks, Schrier, Bresnahan, Craig and Castro, and was referred to the Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Workforce committees.

The bill would cap cost sharing for privately insured patients at $35 for a 30-day supply or 25 per cent of the negotiated net price from 2028. It would also bar deductibles and most prior authorization requirements for covered insulin, fund an insulin resource centre for uninsured people at $2 million a year, and allow the Food and Drug Administration to expedite applications for biosimilar insulin. The Endocrine Society and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) both welcomed its introduction on 3 September.

The case for action became sharper on 2 October, when the ADA published its 2026 National Access and Affordability Survey. Forty-one per cent of respondents said they had rationed, delayed or skipped insulin or other treatment because of cost in the past year. Forty-six per cent of households spent more than $100 a month on insulin, and two in three insulin users reported higher out of pocket costs than in 2025. Lisa Murdock, the ADA's Chief Advocacy Officer, linked the findings directly to the need to pass the INSULIN Act.

Rationing insulin is a clinical risk that can lead to emergency admissions and lifelong complications. The bipartisan support for the bill in both chambers shows that legislators across the political spectrum now treat insulin affordability as a matter of health security for families and offers a model for cross party work in other parliaments.