EDITORIAL: Politicking insulin ‘not helpful’

Aug. 28--A "day of reckoning?" Really?

Few in Minnesota would argue against the position that prescription drug costs are too high; that insurance companies aren't covering what they used to, or ought to; or that work, fueled by bipartisan political will, needs doing now in D.C. and St. Paul before we all end up in the poor house trying to pay for our meds.

Most Minnesotans additionally would agree that our elected officials need to be working together -- with respect, compromise and cooperation, and across the aisle -- to effectively address what for too many of us has become a crisis. Just as we expect those we choose to represent us to work in that way on all matters, large and small, that affect us and our well-being.

So it was disheartening Friday when Democratic governors and U.S. senators from Minnesota and Wisconsin came together for a roundtable discussion and used the moment to put Republicans "on notice" and to instruct them to "get on board" with solving the problem of unaffordable prescription drugs, as Forum News Service's Dana Ferguson reported.

It was Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz who said, "There will be a day of reckoning. Voters will speak at the polls, and they will say it is both morally, ethically, economically the right thing to do." Walz was referring to Minnesota DFL proposals to provide emergency insulin.

Should Republican lawmakers get behind the proposals from the other side of the aisle? Perhaps, but just how open to talking and negotiating will Republicans be after the Democrats' very public, very off-putting "warnings," as the story characterized the comments at the roundtable? It was no way to broach this critical conversation.

Yes, yes, it was politics. But there already had been negotiations that actually were producing results, even if a legislative resolution last session wasn't reached. Insurers in Minnesota recently said they would cap the amount those with diabetes pay for insulin.

"In light of positive changes for insulin coverage from Minnesota health insurers, comments about campaign politics from the governor are not helpful," Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-Nisswa, said in a statement, according to the story.

To be sure, Republicans have been just as guilty as Democrats when it comes to making political those matters that really are too important for such games. Minnesota and Wisconsin Democrats on Friday had the opportunity to rise above for the good of us constituents. Instead, the tone of divisiveness, benefitting no one, was only deepened -- perhaps even jeopardizing a real solution as Minnesotans continue to pay too much for our prescription drugs.

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