Fox News anchor John Roberts is fighting back after the Biden campaign accused him of spreading a "blatant lie."
The Biden campaign loves to remind voters that President Joe Biden instituted a $35 price cap on insulin for Americans on Medicare. But this week, Roberts undercut the Biden campaign's message and reminded Fox News viewers that it was then-President Donald Trump who first instituted the $35 price cap in 2020.
'There are receipts to dispute the Biden campaign's claim about what I said.'
"Maybe I'm misremembering that, but I think it kind of already happened," Roberts said.
On Monday, the Biden campaign claimed that Roberts lied.
"This is a blatant lie. Trump did not cap insulin costs, President Biden did for seniors through the Inflation Reduction Act," the campaign said. "Trump’s Project 2025 wants to repeal it, which would raise insulin costs for over a million Americans."
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As it turns out, the Biden campaign — not Roberts — is guilty of spreading falsehoods.
On Tuesday, Roberts responded to the Biden campaign's accusation.
"There are receipts to dispute the Biden campaign's claim about what I said," Roberts pointed out.
First, Roberts cited a press release from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in May 2020 announcing the Trump policy. The press released explained the Trump policy would "provide Medicare beneficiaries access to a broad set of insulins at a maximum $35 copay for a month’s supply."
Second, Roberts cited Tracey Brown, the then-CEO of the American Diabetes Association, who attended a Rose Garden event announcing Trump's policy. Roberts played a clip of Brown thanking Trump for helping Americans who need insulin. Roberts, moreover, explained that he attended that Rose Garden ceremony.
Third, Roberts cited a Washington Post story that reported on Trump's policy.
The newspaper reported at the time:
The administration has brokered an agreement between insulin manufacturers and some Medicare prescription drug plans that would lower costs for some seniors beginning in 2021 by capping co-pays at $35 for a monthly supply — a figure that administration officials said would lead to roughly a two-thirds drop in out-of-pocket costs and would encourage seniors to continue taking insulin.
Finally, Roberts cited a report from the Rand Corporation, a left-leaning think tank, that praised Trump's program.
"We invited a representative from the Biden campaign to come on the program with us to discuss the issue, but thus far they have made no one available," Roberts concluded.
What Roberts did not include in his response is that another Trump order, Executive Order 13937, was designed to lower insulin costs. Biden later canceled it, then had essentially the same $35 insulin price cap developed by the Trump administration placed in the Inflation Reduction Act.
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In his first days in office, President Joe Biden went on a blitz of reversing or halting policies implemented by former President Donald Trump. Included in the flurry of executive orders and directives, the Biden administration paused a measure that was designed to decrease the price of insulin.
Trump signed off on the "Access to Affordable Life-Saving Medications" rule on Dec. 23, 2020. The rule was to enable "improved access to these life-saving medications by low-income individuals who do not have access to affordable insulin and injectable epinephrine due to either lack of insurance or high cost sharing requirements."
The rule was set to go into effect on Jan. 22, 2021, but it was shot down by the Biden administration. On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that the directive would be frozen for 60 days.
"The temporary delay in the effective date of this final rule is necessary to give Department officials the opportunity for further review and consideration of new regulations, consistent with the memorandum of January 20, 2021, from the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, entitled 'Regulatory Freeze Pending Review,'" the HHS said.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain sent out a memo on Wednesday that directed agencies to freeze all of Trump's last-minute or "midnight regulations." The action to freeze Trump's last regulations will "give the incoming Administration an opportunity to review any regulations that the Trump Administration tried to finalize in its last days," according to the Biden administration.
The directive that orders certain health centers to pass discounts they get on insulin and epinephrine directly to their patients will be frozen until March 22.
As of 2020, "34.2 million Americans — just over 1 in 10 — have diabetes, and another 88 million American adults—approximately 1 in 3—have prediabetes," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"In 2016, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) estimated that Medicare spent $42 billion more for beneficiaries over age 65 with type 2 diabetes than for those who do not have the disease," the CDC stated.
The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization focusing on national health issues, reported that the "average total Medicare Part D spending per user on insulin products increased by 358% between 2007 and 2016, from $862 to $3,949."
As far as insulin sales in the United States, there are the "big three" pharmaceutical giants: Eli Lilly and Company, Sanofi, and Novo Nordisk.
A report from the offices of Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, investigated the soaring insulin prices, and found a "broken" system to blame.
"This investigation makes clear that consumers are the only ones losing out in America's broken drug pricing system, since every part of the pharmaceutical supply chain benefits from higher list prices," Wyden said in a statement.
Novo Nordisk and Sanofi reportedly engaged in a "cat-and-mouse strategy of pricing," where the pharmaceutical companies would match or increase prices any time the competitor raised its prices.
Trump’s executive action was widely reported on, but the Biden administration reversed it before the cost-saving measures could take effect.
A consortium of hospitals recently announced plans to build a factory that can manufacture insulin within two years.
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