California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes bill aimed at limiting the price of insulin to $35

I looked this shit up.

From https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/08/gavin-newsom-california-insulin-bill-35-dollar-cap which is a better article than the AP one,

“With CalRx, we are getting at the underlying cost, which is the true sustainable solution to high-cost pharmaceuticals,” Newsom wrote in a message explaining why he vetoed the bill on Saturday. “With co-pay caps however, the long-term costs are still passed down to consumers through higher premiums from health plans.”

So there's a state backed insulin manufacturer he thinks will drive down prices. He thinks if you were to force insurance companies to bring down the price of insulin then they'd push the price back into consumers through higher costs elsewhere.

The article pointed out that his excuse is weak:
tens of thousands of diabetic Californians trapped in the terrible choice between buying insulin and buying food.”
“This is a missed opportunity that will force them to wait months or years for relief from the skyrocketing costs of medical care when they could have had it immediately,” Wiener said in a news release.
- Why is that an excuse to begin with? Less of an excuse and more or a reason.
  The reason is simple. The price of the insulin from the insurance companies is capped at 35 for a 30 day supply.
  So they will just increase the price of their insurance and nothing has changed.
  The article could just as well speculate that this relief will be shortlived and only last for 1 month until they raise the cost in other ways
If the prices are gonna drop below $35 for everyone under Newsom's plan, what's the problem with a cap? Insurers are going to gouge everyone as much as possible as often as possible under all circumstances. Insulin people can afford won't change that.
This sounds like the "If we raise the minimum wage, prices will skyrocket" argument. Prices skyrocket whether we raise wages or not.
- The cap here was on copay, not cap on cost of the drug. They'd still be directly overcharging people for it.
- "...prices are gonna drop..." that section is the problem - "are gonna drop" is not "have now dropped". People literally die in the meantime, however hoping that will be (and that's if the state-backed medication is ever actually produced at scale).
  Don't think you'd be in the "what's the problem?" camp if it were you or your grandma that needed that insulin.
Since this made me curious I looked up whether they'll offer lispro. Looks like they will, they're starting with three insulins: glargine, lispro, and aspart.
Source: https://www.otcbiotech.com/california-takes-steps-for-safer-more-affordable-insulin-with-civica-rx-partnership/
- Are those good or just okay? I have a family member with T1 and it wreaks havoc on their finances. Feels bad.
Thank you for the good summation.

It's interesting how many Newsom-related news stories are being pushed by the media right now.

It’s because a deadline just passed. He could have signed any of these bills ahead of time and they would have become law. He’s now got a week (I think the deadline was last Sunday) to veto anything remaining or it becomes law automatically.
not to say thats not happening as well, but iirc the CA legislature historically has a big cram to pass most of their bills at the end of the session in september. Ive noticed the flood, too, but this happens every year, all the signing and vetoing lumped together
How many of them are him vetoing bills. Condoms, insulin, etc.
Well he is a complete tool. Maybe he's trying to catch up to the ghoulish monsters running Florida and Texas.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The bill would have banned health plans and disability insurance policies from imposing any out-of-pocket expenses on insulin prescription drugs above $35 for a 30-day supply.

The state has a $50 million contract with the nonprofit pharmaceutical company Civica Rx to manufacture the insulin under the brand CalRx.

“With CalRx, we are getting at the underlying cost, which is the true sustainable solution to high-cost pharmaceuticals,” Newsom wrote in a message explaining why he vetoed the bill on Saturday.

“With copay caps however, the long-term costs are still passed down to consumers through higher premiums from health plans.”

“This is a missed opportunity that will force them to wait months or years for relief from the skyrocketing costs of medical care when they could have had it immediately,” Wiener said in a news release.

In January, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the companies that make and promote most of the nation’s insulin, accusing them of colluding to illegally increase the price.

The original article contains 311 words, the summary contains 162 words. Saved 48%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

What's the excuse for this that everyone is expected to immediately accept or face accusations of being a rightwinger?

Basically if the bill passed then insurance companies would just raise the prices of premiums or other costs to make up the difference. California is making a state-sponsored insulin manufacturer to sell insulin near or at cost in the future which is a better and more sustainable solution for fixing drug proces than passing laws that could be removed or loopholed around
- Until some years from now, someone gets the great idea to sell the company to private investors to pad the budget and the mess starts all over again.
  And any political person in power who wants to do this will sabatoge it until it seems like a great idea since it's doing so bad due to sabatoge.
- That's not a reason to veto this bill.
- This makes me think that CA will just charge more than 35 for insulin and he knows that so doesn't want the law.
  .. this guy has made some weird vetos lately

Get ready for everyone to misinterpret this….