In early February, the Trump administration rolled out Trump RX, a new federal platform that lets uninsured patients buy generic Humalog (insulin lispro) for $35 total for four 10mL vials.
Not $35 each. That’s $35 for all four.
Trump RX has generic Humalog insulin @ $35 for four vials. I used to pay as much as $800 out of pocket for EACH VIAL. Insurance copays are in the $40-$50 range.
1) Trump is doing amazing stuff
2) I’m sad because I’m reminded of how much we’ve been fucked over the years.
3)… pic.twitter.com/Uff1Py3HnY— Rambo Van Halen (@RamboVanHalen) February 6, 2026
Before 2020, the U.S. list price for insulin often topped $300 per vial. Some people paid much more out of pocket.
And there are Nevada families living paycheck to paycheck that need several of those a month just to stay alive.
That’s not health care. That’s ransom.
The new Trump RX pricing represents about a 98 percent cut from those old list prices.
President Donald Trump pushed hard during his first term to lower drug costs, including a Medicare insulin cap in 2020. That policy helped seniors, but it was temporary and didn’t cover everyone.
When Democrats took over, President Joe Biden later expanded the $35 cap for Medicare patients, which critics praised. But for people outside Medicare, prices quietly climbed again.
Trump RX goes straight at that gap, especially for the uninsured.
And it’s got Americans asking questions – like, if insulin can be sold this cheaply now, why was it ever so expensive?
A 2019 study in Journal of the American Medical Association found that insulin prices in the United States were 8 to 10 times higher than in Canada or Europe.
Same drug. Same science.
The problem wasn’t manufacturing costs. It was a broken system.
Drug patents blocked competition. Pharmacy benefit managers, known as PBMs, skimmed rebates behind closed doors. Big companies played pricing games. Patients paid the price.
Clark County has one of the highest diabetes rates in the state. With sky-high insulin costs, Nevada families end up splitting doses and choosing between groceries and medicine.
That’s been the reality for years.
Supporters of Trump RX say this is what happens when Washington finally steps aside and lets competition work. The platform opens the door to generic insulin and cuts out middlemen who profit from complexity.
Critics argue this is just another government program, and warn it could hurt innovation. Others say price caps should be mandatory across the board.
But conservatives point to the root cause: monopolies, lawsuits, and a system built to reward paperwork instead of patients.
After the announcement, many have also called for tougher antitrust enforcement and tort reform, two ideas conservatives have pushed for decades.
Stop giant corporations from boxing out competitors, and stop frivolous lawsuits from driving up costs for everyone else.
This move is about survival.
It’s about a mom in North Las Vegas who works two jobs. It’s about a retiree in Pahrump on a fixed income. It’s about a kid in Elko whose parents just want him to grow up healthy.
If you don’t have diabetes, allow me to give you an example.
Say your friend invited you out to dinner; Italian. Pasta. Lots of carbs.
But you’re on your last insulin vial, you have a week until pay day, and you need to make sure you have enough to last you until you can afford more.
Maybe you could afford dinner itself. But you can’t afford an $800 bottle of insulin yet.
So you either skip dinner, or ration yourself for the rest of the week.
When insulin drops from hundreds of dollars to $35, it’s not a little thing for those of us who depend on it. Every choice we make, we have diabetes (and its associated costs) in the back of our minds.
Trump RX won’t fix everything overnight. But it proves that these prices weren’t inevitable.
They were a choice.
And finally, someone is choosing differently.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. Digital technology was used in the research, writing, and production of this article. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.”
