Nevada lawmaker’s plan would cap insulin at $35 for private insured

Nevada Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager on Thursday introduced an emergency bill draft request that would cap the cost of insulin at $35 for people on private insurance.

“Nevadans should never have to sacrifice life-saving medication because it is not affordable,” Yeager, D-Las Vegas, said Thursday at a news conference. “This is a promise we’re making to tens of thousands of Nevadans who live with diabetes and have struggled for far too long with outrageous, unpredictable prices.”

Assembly Bill 555 would cap the cost at $35 for a 30-day supply of insulin, Yeager said.

The cost of insulin was capped at $35 for people enrolled in Medicare in 2024 through former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. That was a monumental step, Yeager said, and his bill seeks to extend that same relief to Nevadans on private insurance.

The speaker has up to 10 bill draft requests he can introduce after the bill deadline. Yeager said he is bringing the legislation forward now because of what he called failed economic policies of the Trump administration.

Nevada would join over 20 states that have taken steps to rein in insulin costs, including Alabama, Colorado, Minnesota and Washington, Yeager said.

“Insulin is essential for the people who need it. Access to insulin is quite literally a matter of life and death,” said Rudy Zamora, a Nevadan with diabetes. “And when that insulin is not just too expensive, but so expensive that people who need it start to ration it, we have just pushed over the house of cards.”

Over 10 percent of adults in Nevada have diabetes, and diabetics can spend close to $6,000 a year on insulin, Zamora said.

Dr. Christina Madison said she has heard many stories of patients forced to ration their insulin and taking less than prescribed because they can’t afford it.

“I’ve watched people risk their lives not because they’re careless but because they don’t have the financial means,” Madison said.

Barb Hartzell, a Las Vegas resident whose daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, said insulin is not an option for her daughter.

“It is not a luxury,” she said. “It is not negotiable. She has to have insulin or else she will not make it another day. It is life support every single day.”

Contact Jessica Hill at [email protected]. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.