One more shout out to Bernie Sanders (inhalers)
...for pushing those inhaler manufacturers, including my own Astra Zeneca, 'Symbicort' manufacturer (and several others) to lower the cost of my monthly inhaler (and others) to just $35 beginning June 1st.
March 18, 2024 NEWS: Sen. Sanders Applauds AstraZeneca for Capping Inhaler Costs at $35 Per Month
WASHINGTON, March 18 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, on Monday issued the following statement after AstraZeneca announced that it would cap out-of-pocket costs at $35 per month for its asthma and COPD inhalers, starting on June 1, 2024.
The announcement comes on the heels of the January 8 HELP Committee investigation, led by Chairman Sanders and HELP Committee members Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), as to why Americans pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for inhalers.
Earlier this month, Boehringer Ingelheim announced that it would cap patient out-of-pocket costs for all of its inhalers at $35 starting on June 1, 2024. The company also announced that it would lower the list price of some of its inhalers.
Sanders said:
In January, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions that I chair launched an investigation into the outrageously high cost of inhalers that 25 million Americans with asthma and 16 million Americans with COPD rely on to breathe. In my view, Americans who have asthma and COPD should not be forced to pay, in many cases, 10 to 70 times more for the same exact inhalers as patients in Europe and other parts of the world.
Since we launched that investigation, I have had conversations with all of the CEOs of the major manufacturers of these products.
Today, I am very pleased that AstraZeneca has announced that patients in America with commercial insurance and the uninsured or under-insured will pay no more than $35 for the inhalers that they manufacture beginning on June 1st of this year.
This is a very positive step which will help save Americans thousands of dollars a year on the inhalers they need to breathe.
Today, I am calling on the two other major manufacturers of inhalers – GlaxoSmithKline and Teva – to take similar action. If AstraZeneca and Boehringer Ingelheim can cap the cost of inhalers at $35 in the United States, these other companies can do the same.
The Senate HELP Committee will continue to do everything we can do to make sure that Americans no longer pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-applauds-astrazeneca-for-capping-inhaler-costs-at-35-per-month/
...Bernie's been jawboning drug companies with the weight of his Senate investigation and the WH behind him, and getting amazing results.
My inhaler cost over $300 a month without insurance, almost $200 with, except my insurance company just up and stopped covering Symbicort.
I've been using a Good RX card I pay $10. a month for to get it for about $100., a lot for this retiree. I've actually been stretching the inhaler for longer than a month because of the cost, using less than the 2x a day dosage.
So, just thought I'd speak up about a very real and life-altering benefit brought to us, me, in large part by the efforts of the Senator from Vermont with solid support from the President. I am eternally grateful.
Watch Bernie and Joe talking about this and more today:
= new reply since forum marked as read
...you should see the smile on my face.
Such a damn burden on the household, lifted. 
He's a great ally of Biden and Democrats.
I am still in shock because I never thought I would hear Bernie's voice come from Biden's mouth. 
Thank you, Mr. President and Senator Sanders! 
...well over a grand a year for me.
The audacity of the inaction by our national legislature over the years to counter this open criminality by drug companies has been infuriating and just a scandal.
Good for us now, though. 
