Collins Pushes $35 Insulin Cap to Private Insurance
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- Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), facing a tough reelection battle this fall, said last week she added two more co-sponsors to her bill to cap insulin at $35 for the private insurance market and uninsured, modeled on the 2022 Democratic Medicare cap
- U.S. senators are reviving insulin affordability as a campaign-trail win, with the $35 private-market cap echoing a measure Democrats included in their 2022 tax-and-health care law for the senior Medicare program
- The head of Switzerland's pharmaceutical trade group said the U.S. could open a Section 301 investigation against Switzerland, similar to one Washington initiated against Germany after Berlin unveiled April plans to overhaul its statutory healthcare system and cut drug spending
- Washington's Section 301 probe against Germany could result in tariff-related action against German imports, Reuters reports
- Switzerland is separately reviewing measures aimed at reducing mandatory healthcare prices, a move the drug industry has criticized
Why it matters: Collins's bill would extend the $35 insulin cap from Medicare seniors into the private insurance market and uninsured population, broadening diabetes-drug affordability well beyond the 2022 law's scope. The parallel Switzerland/Germany dynamic shows that U.S. pharma pricing abroad is now a live tariff flashpoint, and the industry's own criticism of Swiss price cuts signals organized pushback against any country that follows Berlin's lead.
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