GOP gov nominee’s big drug price brag blown apart by her own voting past

In recent election questionnaires in her bid for governor, House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said she voted to cap the price of insulin for Minnesotans — an example of how she says she has worked throughout her legislative career to make life in the state more affordable.

But Demuth, alongside nearly every other Minnesota Republican, voted against capping the price of co-pays for prescription drugs that treat chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, at $25 per month in 2023. This was one of the many pieces of legislation the Democratic-Farmer-Labor trifecta passed without the help of GOP lawmakers. In 2019, Demuth also voted against cost-sharing limits on insulin that would have reduced the price for consumers.

Demuth did vote in favor of an insulin pricing law in 2020 that allows people to acquire a one-time, 30-day supply of insulin for $35 on an emergency basis.

It’s unclear whether Demuth’s claim of voting to cap insulin prices in questionnaires from WCCO and AARP Minnesota is related to her 2020 vote regarding emergency insulin. Demuth’s campaign did not respond to the Reformer’s request for comment.

The 2020 law was called the Alec Smith Insulin Affordability Act after a 26-year-old man who was unable to afford the $1,300 monthly cost of insulin and supplies died in 2017. Smith aged out of his parents’ health insurance, and he rationed his insulin because of the cost. His family lobbied the Minnesota Legislature to support the bill.

When the 2020 law was first proposed, it included a cap on insulin co-pays, said Rep. Mike Howard, DFL-Richfield, who was the chief author of the legislation.

Republicans controlled the Minnesota Senate and Democrats controlled the House, and Howard said Republicans in 2020 did not want to pass the bill with the cap on insulin, so lawmakers had to compromise.

A cap only passed when Democrats took full control of state government.

Howard said it’s misleading for Demuth to claim she voted for an insulin cap, even if she voted in favor of one for emergency supplies. He said that’s not what an average person thinks when they read of a cap on insulin prices.

“I can totally understand the need in an election that is being fought on the grounds of who is going to make your life more affordable — prescription drugs are a big driver of costs,” Howard said in an interview. “But it’s pretty disingenuous when your entire legislative record is on the side of Big Pharma and big insurance companies that are amassing large profits.”

Howard said he spent years meeting with and negotiating with representatives of the three pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the vast majority of the nation’s insulin: Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novo Nordisk.

One of the people he met with was lobbyist Ben Golnik, whose largest client is Novo Nordisk. Howard said he believes the insulin price-capping legislation would have passed earlier if it wasn’t for the opposition of the pharmaceutical companies.

Golnik is a top advisor to Demuth’s campaign for governor, and he’s doing the work without receiving a paycheck from the campaign. Golnik also represents the tobacco industry and the horse-racing track Running Aces.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic nominee for governor, voted for the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, which included a $35 monthly co-pay cap on insulin and several measures to reduce prescription drug costs.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.