To the editor:
As a pharmacist and certified diabetes educator, I work every day with Georgians suffering from Type 1 diabetes. Successfully managing this condition takes courage and fortitude. Increasingly and tragically, it also requires an ever-larger share of the family budget.
The price of insulin has increased 700 percent over the last 20 years and from 2012 to 2016, annual per-person spending on insulin by patients with type-1 diabetes nearly doubled, from $2,900 to $5,700 per year.
In Georgia alone, the estimated annual cost of treating diabetes has grown to $11 billion a year — thanks in large part to the price of insulin.
Americans pay far more for these medications and hundreds of others than patients in other countries. It’s time for Congress to act on bipartisan legislation that has the support of Democrats on one side and President Trump on the other.
The Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act of 2019 would disincentivize price-gouging by requiring manufacturers to have some skin in the game when it comes to covering Medicare Part D expenses. The package would also keep price increases below the rate of inflation, cap out-of-pocket costs for seniors, support competition and boost transparency.
Please contact our U.S. senators and ask them to support this long-overdue legislation to help patients crushed by the soaring costs of medications on which their lives depend.
Mandy Reece is an associate professor and vice chair of Department of Pharmacy Practice and director of Inter-Professional Education for Philadelphia College of Medicine Georgia Campus School of Pharmacy in Suwanee, Georgia.
