President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump 2024.
Kevin Lamarque | Jay Paul | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump acknowledged Saturday that the price of insulin is lower under President Joe Biden, but he still wants voters to give credit to his administration.
“Low insulin prices for millions of Americans were obtained by me, by the Trump administration, not by crook Joe Biden. He had nothing to do with it,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “This all happened long before he took office unfortunately. All he does is try to take credit for things other people have done, in this case, me!”
This comment comes as Trump lags behind Biden on the issue of health care, a top priority for voters as the November election approaches.
For example, a May poll by KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group, found Biden with an 11-point lead over Trump on the issue of ensuring access to affordable health insurance.
Biden led on several other health care-related topics in the poll, although the candidates were relatively divided on tackling rising health care costs. The poll surveyed 1,479 American adults from April 23 to May 1, and has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.
The two candidates are expected to hold their first face-to-face presidential debate on June 27.
Insulin price caps became a central piece of evidence for Biden's broader economic argument during the campaign against Trump.
Under the Inflation Control Act, Biden issued a set of provisions aimed at lowering drug prices for seniors, including capping the price of insulin at $35 a month for Medicare recipients. The president has continued to push for a more comprehensive insulin cap that would cover young people as well.
“Instead of paying $400 a month for insulin, seniors with diabetes only have to pay $35 a month!” Biden said in his State of the Union address in March. “And now I want to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for every American who needs it!”
The Democratic incumbent is trying to use lower insulin costs as evidence that he has helped lower consumer costs despite stubbornly high levels of inflation looming over the U.S. economy's post-pandemic recovery.
For Trump's part, the former president signed an executive order in the final year of his administration requiring federal community health centers to offer discounts on insulin to customers, his own effort to lower insulin prices. Biden later paused the policy when he took office as part of a larger freeze to allow his administration to review new regulations set to take effect.
But the memory of Trump-era health care policies continues to dampen some voters' views of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee's record. A CNBC All-America Economic poll, released in December, showed Biden with a 19-point lead over Trump on health care.
Trump has spent most of his presidential term trying unsuccessfully to repeal the Obama-era Affordable Care Act without offering a viable alternative health care option. The Affordable Care Authority provides health insurance to about 45 million Americans, according to a White House estimate in March.
Trump doubled down on his promise to replace Obamacare during his 2024 campaign, though he has yet to specify what that replacement would look like.
“I'm not running to end the ACA like crook Joe Biden says everywhere,” Trump said in a video posted to his Truth Social account in April. “We will make the ACA much better than it is now and much less expensive for you.”
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Trump signed an executive order in the final year of his administration requiring federal community health centers to pass on insulin discounts to clients. An earlier version misstated his actions.
