The cost of insulin has been kept artificially high for millions of Americans because drug manufacturers and middlemen work together to maximize their profits, a new bipartisan investigation shows.
This maneuvering around the growing price tag for medicine needed by diabetics to combat America s No. 7 killer represents a microcosm of the reasons prescription drugs cost so much in the U.S.
It also demonstrates one of the consequences of growing consolidation within American health care, a trend The Dispatch is investigating.
“Insulin is Exhibit A of why America’s drug pricing system is broken from top to bottom, said U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden in a statement to The Dispatch/USA TODAY Network. Our bipartisan report reveals how large corporations benefit from high prices while consumers and taxpayers foot the bill.”