By Former President Donald Trump on Saturday recognized that the price of insulin is lower under President Joe Biden, but he still wants voters to credit his own administration.
“Low INSULIN PRICING was gotten for millions of Americans by me, and the Trump Administration, not by Crooked Joe Biden. He had NOTHING to do with it,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “It was all done long before he so sadly entered office. All he does is try to take credit for things done by others, in this case, ME!”
The comment comes as Trump lags Biden on the issue of health care, a top voter priority as the November election nears.
For example, a May survey from KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group, found Biden with an 11-point lead over Trump on the question of ensuring access to affordable health insurance.
Biden led on several other health-care-related topics in the poll, though the candidates were relatively split on addressing high health-care costs. The poll surveyed 1,479 U.S. adults from April 23 to May 1 and the margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points.
The two candidates are expected to have their first face-to-face presidential debate on June 27.
Insulin price caps have become a central piece of evidence for Biden’s broader economic argument on the campaign trail against Trump.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden issued a host of provisions aimed at bringing down the price of medicine for seniors, including capping the price of insulin at $35 per month for Medicare recipients. The president has continued to push for a more universal insulin cap that would cover younger people as well.
“Instead of paying $400 a month for insulin, seniors with diabetes only have to pay $35 a month!” Biden said at his State of the Union address in March. “And now I want to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for every American who needs it!”
The Democratic incumbent is trying to use lower insulin costs as proof that he has helped lower consumer costs despite the stubbornly high levels of inflation that have loomed over the U.S. economy’s post-pandemic recovery.
For Trump’s part, the former president signed an executive order in the last year of his administration requiring federal community health centers to pass on insulin discounts to customers, his own effort to lower insulin prices. Biden later paused that policy when he took office as part of a larger freeze to allow his administration to review new regulations set to go into effect.
But the memory of Trump-era health-care policies has still dimmed some voters’ views on the track record of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. A CNBC All-America Economic survey issued in December found that Biden was ahead by 19 points against Trump on health care.
Trump unsuccessfully spent most of his presidential term trying to repeal the Obama-era Affordable Care Act without offering a viable alternative health-care option. The ACA provides roughly 45 million Americans wit health insurance, according to a March estimate from the White House.
Trump has doubled down on the promise to replace Obamacare on the 2024 campaign trail, though he has still not outlined what that replacement would look like.
“I’m not running to terminate the ACA as Crooked Joe Biden says all over the place,” Trump said in a video posted to his Truth Social account in April. “We’re going to make the ACA much better than it is right now and much less expensive for you.”
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Trump signed an executive order in the last year of his administration requiring federal community health centers to pass on insulin discounts to customers. A previous version mischaracterized his action.
