Sen. Elizabeth Warren points to lower prices for insulin, hearing aids among solutions to crushing healthcare costs

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren singled out price caps on insulin as one attainable step toward tackling high costs of prescription drugs in America when she spoke with GBH’s Boston Public Radio Friday. “There are a lot of things we should be doing,” she began, citing the need for better regulation of industry monopolies, or concentrations, as she described them.

“But we also need to get something passed,” she said, acknowledging Democrats’ difficulty getting legislation through under the current 50-50 makeup of the Senate. “For that,” she said, “you’ve got to negotiate with each other until you get enough votes.”

In the next couple of weeks, her chamber is due to take up legislation sponsored by Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock that would cap the cost of insulin at $35 per month for Americans who need it. Currently, average costs for insulin run ten times higher in the U.S. than they do in other wealthy nations, according to a federal report published in 2020.

“Think of it as the leading wedge on a lot of work that we need to do in the prescription drug industry,” Warren said.

Much of President Joe Biden’s agenda on healthcare issues died in December with his $3.5 trillion Build Back Better legislation, which failed to get full support from Senate Democrats.

Warren’s support for lowering insulin costs was echoed by Biden, who also brought up the subject during his State of the Union address earlier in March.

“Let’s cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month so everyone can afford it,” the president said.

Another area where high healthcare costs are hitting Americans is the price of hearing aids, which can cost as much as $6,000. While responding to calls from listeners, Warren was asked her thoughts on the subject by a woman who identified herself as Deb from Boston.

“Help is on the way,” Warren told her, citing the 2017 passage of the bipartisan Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act she created with Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley.

She told the caller that new, more affordable hearing aids are making their way through the FDA regulation process, and that overall prices will fall in time.

“We’re going to watch a market at work. Instead of those hearing aids that today can cost thousands of dollars, the price is gonna be down in the hundreds of dollars. And it’s gonna bring help to a lot of people,” she said.