On January 20, President Biden issued a freeze on all new regulations that former President Trump had not finished implementing so his administration would have a chance to evaluate them and decide whether they should go into effect. These freezes are standard practice for a new administration taking over for a president of the opposite party; President Trump implemented a similar freeze on his first day in office in 2017.

One such regulation required that federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) that receive legally-required discounts on insulin through the federal 340B program "pass through" the full amount of that discount to patients. While this sounds like a beneficial policy for patients on the surface, it would not have had any impact on the list price of insulin, which is the primary cause of the insulin crisis -- and it would have made it harder for FQHCs to continue providing the same range of services they do now. Given that well over 2 million people living with with diabetes in the United States receive care from FQHCs, any negative impact on their ability to continue providing a wide range of services and care is cause for concern.

President Biden's regulatory freeze is being used to try to score ideological points from both the left and right, but patients are not pawns to be used for retweets. Like President Trump before him, President Biden has the power to hold the insulin manufacturers accountable for exploiting patients, and we expect him to use the tools available to him to lower the list price of insulin. T1International's stance remains the same as it was when the order was first released last year: If the president really wants to lower the price of insulin and address the crisis of high drug prices, he already knows the solution; the question is whether he has the political courage to pursue it.