At HELP Committee Markup, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders Announces Support for Senator Collins’ Bipartisan INSULIN Act

Senator Sanders offered Senator Collins' insulin affordability bill as an amendment, which received strong bipartisan support from the committee.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) markup, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) signaled his strong support for Senator Susan Collins' Improving Needed Safeguards for Users of Lifesaving Insulin Now (INSULIN) Act by introducing it as an amendment to her bill to lower the price of prescription drugs.

The Committee voted 15-8 to approve Senator Sanders' amendment, with every Democratic member of the Committee voting in favor-signaling the broad, bipartisan support Senator Collins' INSULIN Act enjoys in the Senate.

Senator Sanders' amendment comes as the INSULIN Act continues to gain support in the Senate. In addition to the bill's authors-Senators Collins, Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and John Kennedy (R-LA)-the bill has been cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 22 senators. Now, with the endorsement of Senator Sanders, the leading Democrat on the Senate HELP Committee, this landmark legislation has gained additional momentum as Senator Collins continues to work to lower costs and improve access to lifesaving insulin for patients in Maine and across the country.

At the markup, Senator Collins noted Senator Sanders' endorsement of her INSULIN Act after he offered it as an amendment to her Ensuring Timely Access to Generics Act:

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"[The Ensuring Timely Access to Generics Act], our bipartisan bill, would strengthen the FDA's ability to reject citizen petitions if it believes that the primary purpose of the petition is to delay approval of the lower price generic competitor. If enacted, this bipartisan bill would improve competition, save patients money, and, according to the latest assessment from the CBO, save taxpayers $49 million.

"I find it extremely interesting that Ranking Member Sanders has proposed nine amendments to this common-sense bill. He has not proposed amendments to any other bill. I think it's pretty easy to figure out what the motivation is here. I am pleased that the Ranking Member finally supports the insulin bill and has proposed it as an amendment to this bill. I've worked, alongside Senator Shaheen, my co-chair of the Senate Diabetes Caucus, on legislation to lower the cost of insulin since 2019. And before that, I held a hearing in the Aging Committee on the cost. That's what led us to the INSULIN Act, which has many components, including the Ensuring Timely Access to Generics Act. This bill is the one before us now, and passed out of the HELP Committee in 2023."

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The INSULIN Act would cap the cost of insulin at $35 per month for Americans with private and employer-sponsored insurance. It would also create a pilot program to make insulin available at the same cost to uninsured Americans, expanding access for millions of patients.

As co-chairs of the Senate Diabetes Caucus, Senators Collins and Shaheen have been at the forefront of bipartisan efforts to lower insulin costs since 2019, when they introduced the Insulin Price Reduction Act.

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