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Congress closes in on COVID relief, insulin price cap

Welcome to Thursday's Overnight Health Care, where we're following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. Subscribe here.

It makes sense if you're from North Carolina: Country music star Eric Church canceled a concert scheduled for this Saturday so he can attend the University of North Carolina's Final Four basketball game against Duke.

Senators are closing in on a deal to provide the Biden administration with $10 billion in COVID-19 relief funding, less than half of what the White House initially asked for. We'll look at the latest details as lawmakers work to finalize a deal.

For The Hill, we're Peter Sullivan, Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Send us tips and feedback at psullivan@thehill.com, nweixel@thehill.com and jchoi@thehill.com.

Let's get started.

Senate finalizing $10 billion deal on coronavirus aid

Senators are finalizing an agreement to provide $10 billion in new coronavirus aid as they race to try to pass a bill before a two-week break set to start in days.

Those involved in the deal signaled that they were close to a finalized agreement but said they were still ironing out legislative text, waiting for an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and haggling over final details.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has been in talks with a group of Republican senators, said that they were "getting close to a final agreement that would garner bipartisan support."

"We are working diligently to finalize language, scoring, and a final agreement on what should be funded in the final COVID package, both domestic and international," he added.

In a sign of how close senators are to a final agreement, Schumer canceled a procedural vote on a bill that senators are using as a vehicle for a coronavirus aid deal, with the move being aimed at showing Republicans that he isn't trying to jam them.

Republicans were more bullish about the state of the negotiations.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who is involved in the negotiations, said that the group had reached a "deal in principle."

"We haven't got the final draft done, and it hasn't been scored by the CBO, but we've reached an agreement in principle on all the spending and all of the offsets," Romney said.

Read more here.

House votes on bill to cap insulin price

The House on Thursday was poised to vote on legislation to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month, a move that would significantly lower the price of the life-saving drug for more than 7 million diabetes patients.

The measure was authored by three House Democrats facing competitive reelection races this fall: Reps. Angie Craig (Minn.), Dan Kildee (Mich.) and Lucy McBath (Ga.).

Under the bill, Medicare beneficiaries would pay no more than $35 for each 30-day insulin prescription. Cost sharing for beneficiaries in private plans would be limited to the lesser of either $35, or 25 percent of the health plan's negotiated price for a 30-day prescription.

Political victories: The insulin cap was originally part of the sweeping health reforms in Democrats' Build Back Better legislation.

But Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) opposition to the legislation put the larger bill on ice, and Democrats carved out the insulin provision as a standalone vote as a way to get a tangible victory on an issue of major importance to Americans — even if the underlying issue of high drug costs wasn't being solved.

What's next: Across the Capitol, a bill from Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) would also implement an out-of-pocket cap on insulin at $35 per month.

But in an effort to gain Republican support, it may be combined with bipartisan legislation from Sens. Jean Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) that seeks to lower the underlying cost of insulin through a yet-to-be-defined process.

🎧 TUNE-IN TO RISING, now available as a podcast. It's politics, without the screaming.

WHY IS INSULIN SO EXPENSIVE?

Lawmakers in the House and Senate are zeroing in on legislation that would lower the price of insulin, reigniting questions over how the cost of this essential medicine was able to skyrocket in the U.S. and remain so high.

While drug companies often argue patients don't pay the list price for a drug, some patients do have to pay out-of-pocket for drugs until they meet their deductible. Price increases also impact people without insurance.

According to the most recent data from the Department of Health and Human Services, released in 2020, the U.S. pays "dramatically" higher prices for insulin compared to other countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

At that time, the U.S. paid $98.70 per standard unit of insulin, while other countries like Canada, Australia and the U.K. all spent less than $15 per unit.