If Medicare negotiated insulin prices like the VA, it could have saved billions

As insulin becomes a poster child for the growing outcry over the cost of medicines, a new analysis suggests that Medicare could have saved $4.4 billion in 2017 for the diabetes treatment if the program negotiated the same prices as the Department of Veterans Affairs, which already bargains for discounts.

For more than two dozen different insulin products covered by Medicare Part D that year, spending was $7.8 billion, based on estimated rebates of 41% received from drug makers. However, if the federal health care program had negotiated as the VA does — and used the same formulary, or list, of covered medicines — spending would have dropped to nearly $3.4 billion.