Key Panel Considers Insulin Availability Program (Clips)

Members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee held an informational hearing on the Insulin Availability Program Monday, September 23. The proposal, offered by Senator Eric Pratt, R-Prior Lake, would provide insulin to individuals earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level who are not eligible for state and federal programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and MinnesotaCare. Health professionals and advocates, including Nicole Smith-Holt, whose son Alec died in 2017 while attempting to ration his insulin supply until his next paycheck, offered their views of the plan.

Bipartisan agreement on the need to find a way to help insulin-dependent Minnesotans afford the drug faltered at the end of the 2019 legislative session, as did a bipartisan working group that met throughout the summer. Lawmakers generally support Senator Pratt’s proposal, but some expressed concern that the plan doesn’t cover access to insulin in emergency situations.

“This plan does not assume that there is not a need for emergency insulin, and further discussion can and should continue. But we also should be able to agree that providing help to insulin-dependent Minnesotans, before they feel the need to ration, is a better approach,” Senator Pratt responded.