Republicans stripped out a provision to cap insulin costs at $35 for private insurers from the Inflation Reduction Act. Ana Kasparian discusses on The Young Turks. Watch LIVE weekdays 6-8 pm ET.
The so-called inflation reduction act which passed in the senate over the weekend includes provisions that make some not all some prescription drugs more affordable for americans on medicare but price caps on insulin were defeated for americans who rely on private insurance and the reason why that happened is because well republicans blocked it the same republicans
By the way who purport to be pro-life the same republicans who seem to think that it’s okay to force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term force a woman or in some cases a girl to go through childbirth against her will they think that they’re pro-life except if you have diabetes and you can’t afford your insulin oh they’ll abandon you knowing full well that you
Might die because you can’t afford the insulin you need to survive so let’s get into the details how did this happen how was it defeated well the pr this is how the provision would work now medicare as the bill is written today will negotiate we’ll be able to negotiate the prices for 10 prescription drugs not today not tomorrow not next year but uh starting
In 2026. so in 2026 wow medicare can finally start negotiating prices for 10 prescription drugs now after 2026 the list can include more drugs in following years but that part of this legislation is incredibly vague i don’t know what that means does that mean it can expand to 10 more drugs one more drug what what are the numbers here that’s as we know right now
Very unclear but there are some out-of-pocket price caps uh in the bill for the nation’s seniors that is a positive component of this legislation for instance the package would cap out of pocket costs that seniors pay annually for prescription drugs at two thousand dollars and would ensure that seniors have access to free vaccines overall that’s pretty good but i
Also want you to consider that our nation’s seniors are usually on fixed incomes so two thousand dollars is still a lot of money but i’m in favor of price caps out of pocket price caps especially with um the incredible greed that we see from these pharmaceutical companies now the package would also extend subsidies to help americans afford private insurance offered
Through the affordable care act marketplace now these subsidies were in place they were set to expire thanks to this legislation they will be extended that is also good okay um but here’s what the so-called pro-life republican senators did now democrats wanted a price cap on insulin for everyone okay including those who rely on private insurance republicans are
Like nah nah we’re not we’re not about that um they decided to keep that provision intact for medicare recipients but if you are rely reliant on private insurance the price cap didn’t make it okay despite an adverse ruling from the chambers parliamentarian who by the way could have easily been overruled by kamala harris as the senate president democrats opted
To keep the full price cap provision in the bill anyway democrats would have needed 60 votes their entire caucus plus the support of 10 gop members to beat back that challenge they came up short okay so let me decode that for you a little bit right so the senate parliamentarian weighs in whenever the senate tries to pass something through reconciliation meaning
Pass something without the legislative filibuster pass something with a simple majority of 51 senators rather than having to pass something with 60 senators parliamentarian jumps in and says um you can’t do the price cap for insulin for you know people who rely on private insurance because that doesn’t impact the federal budget you can only pass things through
Reconciliation if it has an impact on the federal budget well look again kamala harris as the senate president can jump in and be like overruled i’m just going to disregard what the parliamentarian says she has the right to do that they didn’t do that instead they tried to pass it with the 60 votes necessary to pass that provision and guess what it didn’t pass
Of course it didn’t pass so republicans did vote against it i do want to note some republicans did support the price cap in the 57-43 vote for the measure but not enough joined democrats in support of it to meet the threshold for passage because you do need 60 senators if you’re going to try to pass this through a non-reconciliation way okay so uh you don’t
Have enough republicans i think democrats saw that coming and so um let’s talk about the impact this is going to have on americans okay diabetes affects a lot of americans one in ten to be exact taking a serious toll on both quality of life and personal finances for many according to the cdc people with diagnosed diabetes have more than twice the average medical
Costs than those without diabetes when comparing the united states to countries around the world the cost of insulin in the united states is eight times higher than the combined average of their high-income nations and so since it’s so unaffordable in america what do diabetes patients end up doing well according to charity rx they did a survey and they found out
That 79 say that insulin has posed a financial difficulty for them personally or for those in their care four and five have taken on credit card debt to afford insulin 9 000 dollars is the average amount of debt people have taken on to cover insulin costs and in an effort to lower costs 62 percent have skipped and or adjusted the dosage of insulin injections for
Themselves or as a caregiver for someone else to cut down on costs you could die let’s just keep it real you’re messing around with dosage because you can’t afford the medication you can’t afford the insulin you’re putting your life at risk and it’s not because these patients want to do it it’s because we have a broken system that is constantly protected by corrupt
Politicians in congress in this case in the senate so what i found fascinating was that republican senator joni ernst just recently in 2020 gave a speech indicating that she knows full well how damaging the unaffordable price of insulin is to americans across this country she knows it but she’s one of the senators who voted against the provision that would have
Capped the price of insulin to 35 for private insurance recipients right so let’s let’s watch that speech this is what she said in 2020 the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs has become a matter of life and death for so many we’ve heard the heartbreaking stories of individuals who could not afford their insulin were forced to ration and skip doses and as
A result they lost their lives i remember quite vividly a conversation i had with an iowa mother explaining how she lost her son who as a young man was rationing his insulin because he could not afford to do more there she is she knows what’s going on yet she had the audacity she had the goal to vote against the provision that would have capped insulin prices
To 35 for people who have private insurance and by the way even if that provision had passed it still wouldn’t have been enough because what about the tens of millions of americans who don’t have insurance at all we just leave them alone and and allow them to die because they can’t afford the medication they need to survive in one of the richest countries in the
World is that what we do yeah that’s what we do joni ernst along with all the other republican lawmakers who voted against this are just flat-out disgusting corrupt monsters they don’t care about their constituents they don’t care about doing anything other than using their position of power to do what to enrich themselves they’ll give the floor speeches to make it
Seem as though they’re empathetic to the plight of americans across the country but at the end of the day when push comes to shove when they have the opportunity to do the right thing they never cast the right vote to do right by their own constituents that’s who joni ernst is that’s who all those other republicans who voted down that provision are they don’t care
They’ll try to piggyback off of a populist uh environment in this country and pretend like they understand the the genuine concerns of americans the genuine economic realities that americans are facing today but at the end of the day all it really is is pr for themselves actions speak louder than words they’ve shown us through their actions they don’t actually
Care about what americans are facing in this country especially when it comes to the cost of pharmaceutical drugs finally i wanted to give some props to bernie sanders because he fought as hard as he could to include amendments in this legislation that would have yielded a much better result much better bill sanders offered amendments that would have removed oil
And gas handouts from the reconciliation bill he added dental hearing and vision coverage to medicare established a civilian conservation corps he strengthened the measures drug price provisions revived the expanded child tax credit and hiked the corporate tax rate these are all proposed amendments from senator sanders and what happened the vermont senator was
The lone yes vote on all on all but one of his amendments senators rafael warnock and john ossoff supported the proposal to expand medicare that’s nice it’s not nice that only two democratic senators signed on for that and when it came to all the other amendments bernie sanders was the only one in fact here’s warren gunnell’s tweet that helps you visualize that
Our amendments cut medicare drug prices by 50 percent one senator voted in favor as you can imagine that’s bernie sanders expand medicare as i mentioned three senators voted in favor of that civilian climate corps one senator bernie sanders voted in favor of that extended child tax credit which democrats were bragging had cut child poverty by 50 percent they all
Voted no on extending that child tax credit bernie sanders was the only one who voted yes and when it comes to striking fossil fuel uh provisions in the bill again bernie sanders was the only democratic senator who voted yes so while we have all this negative coverage of corporate democrats like mansion and cinema understand that they’re really the two that have
No problem serving as the heel or the heels there are a bunch of other corporate democrats who are too cowardly to be as vociferous as mansion and cinema are but they exist so you get rid of mansion and cinema and another corporate democrat will take their place because at the end of the day that corporate cash means more to them than doing right by their own
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Transcribed from video
Republicans BLOCK Price Cap on Insulin for Millions of Americans with Private Insurance By The Young Turks