Republican senators on Sunday removed a $35 insulin cap for patients with private insurance plans from Democrats’ $740 billion tax and climate spending bill that the party will soon pass along party lines.
Democrats had sought to include the cap under both private plans and Medicare, but the Senate parliamentarian ruled that it could not apply to private insurance under the chamber’s budget rules that allow Democrats to approve the legislation with a simple majority and subvert the filibuster.
As a result, 60 votes were needed — all Democrats and at least 10 Republicans — on an amendment to keep the $35 insulin cap for private insurance carriers in the legislation known as the Inflation Reduction Act.