March 1, 2023
Access & Coverage | Tea Leaves
  • The Mississippi state legislature moved one step closer this week to expanding Medicaid coverage for new mothers for up to a year — making it another Republican-controlled state to implement or consider the expansion. As Mississippi inches closer to adopting the expansion, Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican who has been skeptical in the past of expanding the coverage, said this week on social media that more babies will be born due to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and that adopting the postpartum coverage expansion was part of a “new pro-life agenda.” (Article here)
  • Under pressure to curb diabetes-treatment costs, Eli Lilly & Co. announced that it will cut the list prices for its most commonly prescribed insulin products by 70 percent and take other steps to make it easier for patients to afford the drugs. The company said the price cuts will take effect in the fourth quarter for Humalog and Humulin, its two biggest-selling insulin products. The company also said that on May 1, it will reduce the list price of an unbranded insulin from $85 a vial to $25 a vial, the lowest level for any insulin that diabetes patients take around mealtimes, and less than Lilly’s list price for a Humalog vial in 1999. Lilly also plans to improve a program capping patients’ out-of-pocket costs at $35 a month. (Articles here, here, and here)