By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – It almost sounds quaint to hear Megan Blair talk about insulin costing her $800 a month ten years ago. That’s because it’s now $1800 a month.

Blair, a 27-year-old single mom from the Decatur area, appeared at a news conference announcing a bill to cap the out-of-pocket cost of insulin at $100 per month.

The sponsor, State Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill), admitted Big Pharma and Big Insurance did not care for the bill, and that the bill has no Republican co-sponsors.

As for Blair, she says she found out the hard way rationing insulin is not a good plan.

“I ended up in the hospital several times,” Blair told a Springfield news conference. “It usually ended up with a 2-3 day stay in the ICU. After months and months of going through the struggle of fighting with insurance, the public aid I was given was taken away.”

Asked why government should interfere with the free market, Manar says lives of people such as Blair are more important than a corporate profit.

Manar hops to run his bill in the fall veto session, which starts in late October.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].