Fact check: Trump falsely accuses Harris and Biden of lying about $35 insulin
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, claimed in the North Carolina address that Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic opponent in the presidential election, and President Joe Biden are lying when they tout their success in bringing insulin prices for Medicare recipients down to $35 per month (per prescription). Trump claimed that they are taking credit for his own work.
Trump said: “Kamala and Joe tried to take credit for $35 insulin. You know that? You know who did that? I did that. I did that. I did the insulin, and it kicked in. And you know, I remember when I did it – it had to be a statute, it was a certain statute that took a certain period of time – I said, ‘I hope I’m elected because somebody’s going to get a lot of credit for doing what I got done.’ I got it done, $35 insulin. And now they take credit for it. It’s terrible. Terrible.” He complained that they had not thanked him for his work, then said, “Instead, they say, ‘We brought insulin in at $35.’ It’s a lie.”
Facts First: Trump’s narrative is false. He did create a $35-per-month cap on insulin for some people on Medicare, through a voluntary program that prescription drug plans could choose to participate in, but did not sign a statute (a law) to secure the future of the program. Biden and Harris did get a statute passed – and that law created a permanent $35-per-month Medicare insulin policy that went far beyond Trump’s. The law ensured that all 3.4 million-plus insulin users on Medicare, not just some of them,got $35-per-month insulin. It did so through a mandatory cap that not only covers more people than Trump’s voluntary cap did but also applies to a greater number of insulin products than Trump’s did and stays in effect at a level of individual drug spending at which Trump’s cap disappeared.
Trump could fairly say he played a role in lowering insulin costs and that Biden and Harris do not deserve sole credit. The Biden-era federal government has acknowledged that Biden’s mandatory $35 monthly cap “closely aligns with” the voluntary $35 monthly cap in the Trump-created program that was announced in 2020 and launched in the final month of the Trump presidency in 2021.
But Trump’s attempt to create the impression that Biden and Harris are simply seizing credit for his policy is inaccurate. The Biden administration’s policy goes beyond Trump’s policy in multiple ways, in addition to the fact that it was enshrined by legislation.
The Biden policy applies the $35-per-month cap to every insulin user in Medicare Part D, while the Trump policy didn’t; the Biden policy applies the $35 cap to Medicare Part B, while the Trump policy was only for Medicare Part D; the Biden policy requires a $35 cap on all covered insulin products, while the Trump policy only required it on some; and the Biden policy eliminates insulin payments for patients at the “catastrophic” level of drug spending, while the $35 cap didn’t exist at the “catastrophic” level under the Trump policy.
You can read more details here.
Other false claims
Trump made a variety of other false claims in the Wednesday speech. Here is a brief fact check of 13 of those claims, many of which have been previously debunked. (This is not a complete list.)
- He claimed that the price of bacon “went up by four or five times” under Biden and Harris. It’s actually up 18%, nowhere near the 300% or 400% spike Trump is claiming.
- He claimed that Harris’ policy proposals will result in people’s taxes quadrupling. Experts say there is no basis for this claim.
- Speaking of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he claimed Biden is “letting him have the whole thing.” In fact, Biden has led an international effort to help Ukraine fight Russia; Russia has to date been able to seize about 18% of Ukraine’s territory, nowhere near the entire country.
- He said Covid-19 was “ending all over the world, it was pretty much ending” when Biden and Harris took office in January 2021. It was not.
- He said his tax cuts were the largest ever. They were not.
- He said he took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China through his tariffs on Chinese products, and that no previous president had taken in “10 cents” from tariffs on China. Both claims are wrong. Study after study has found that Americans paid the overwhelming majority of the cost of Trump’s tariffs, and the US was generating billions per year in revenue from tariffs on China before Trump took office.
- He said Biden appointed Harris as “border czar” and put her in charge of the border. In reality, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been in charge of border security under Biden; Biden gave Harris a more limited immigration-related assignment, asking her to lead diplomacy with Central American countries in an attempt to address the “root causes” of their citizens’ migration.
- He said he built 571 miles of border wall. Official government statistics show it was 458 miles, most of it replacement barrier.
- He said he built more border wall “than I said I was going to build.” In fact, he repeatedly said during his 2016 campaign that “we need” 1,000 miles of wall, far more than he ended up building.
- He said he forced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, to deploy the National Guard during civil unrest in Minneapolis in 2020. In fact, Walz deployed the National Guard before Trump pressured him to do so.
- He said Venezuela is “taking all of their criminals” and people from mental institutions and “bringing” them to the US. Experts say there is no evidence for this claim.
- He said Houston has the only refinery in the world that can handle Venezuelan oil. Various other refineries in the US refine Venezuelan oil.
Trump continued to discuss his disagreement with Biden and Harris's handling of credit for lowering insulin prices, stating in a subsequent interview, "The politics surrounding this issue are complex, but the facts remain clear: I initiated the policy to lower insulin prices for some Medicare recipients, and while Biden and Harris's policy goes beyond mine in several ways, it's misleading to ignore my significant role in this issue."
It's important to acknowledge that while Trump did instigate a voluntary program to cap insulin prices at $35 for certain Medicare recipients, Biden and Harris successfully enacted a statute ensuring that all Medicare insulin users can benefit from this policy, regardless of which prescription drug plan they are enrolled in. This statute significantly expands upon Trump's original policy, providing more extensive coverage and lowering costs for a wider range of insulin products.
