President Biden Has Not Raised the Cost of Insulin
The Claim
Upon taking office, President Joe Biden reversed an executive order put in by the Trump administration to reduce patient costs for insulin.
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Emerging story
Former North Carolina Congressman Mark Walker posted a Tweet on January 22nd that stated the following: "The disdain for President Trump and his accomplishments are so deep that President Biden is raising the prices of insulin and Epi-Pens on those with high costs and the uninsured. Heartless punishing of North Carolinians for political gain. This is wrong." He linked to a story by Modern Healthcare.
Users across social media continued to push this claim.
Misbar’s Analysis
The Misbar team has determined that the claim is false. In July 2020, President Trump signed an executive order that required federally qualified health centers who purchase insulin through the 340B drug program, to take the savings on the drug prices and allow them to pass those savings onto the consumer. The Trump executive order had not gone into effect yet. Upon taking office, the Biden administration froze the order until March 22.
While Trump had characterized the order as a way to lower the price of insulin to consumers, the National Association of Community Health Centers says that the administration did not fully understand the issues. Nevertheless, Trump’s order never went into effect and therefore, Biden freezing the order has not raised the prices of insulin. We rate the claim as false.
