A PolitiFact fact check from April 8, 2022 made an ambiguous and misleading claim comparing costs of insulin in the United States to elsewhere. Accordingly, we asked PolitiFact for a correction.
We will update this post when and if we note PolitiFact has either corrected the item or otherwise responded to the complaint.
Dear Truth-O-Meter,
PolitiFact’s April 8, 2022 fact check of a Tammy Baldwin claim makes its own highly dubious claim (bold and italics added for emphasis):
There is no question that U.S. consumers pay more than those in other countries. And there is strong evidence that drug company profits are a key factor in the higher costs. But experts note that there are other factors involved –- and other steps along the way where profits are taken. And those entities also play a role in the higher costs.
For a statement that is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context, our rating is Half True.
PolitiFact cites an OECD comparison in support of the bolded claim. That’s appropriate if the claim limits the comparison to OECD nations. Insulin prices may be higher than U.S. prices in some countries outside the OECD. And Switzerland has a higher price for (rapid-acting) Humalog.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/cost-of-insulin-by-country
It’s appropriate to correct the fact check to clarify PolitiFact’s citation only supports its claim with respect to the OECD (excepting Switzerland’s pricing of Humalog). And, for context, the fact check should note that higher prices occur outside the OECD.
I trust PolitiFact will correct promptly in accord with its commitment to corrections as per the IFCN Code of Principles, ensuring so far as possible that readers have the opportunity to see the corrected version of the fact check.
Thank you so much for sending PolitiFact feedback and suggestions. We read all of your messages, but we don’t reply to them all.
If you received notification that something you shared was false or missing context, learn more about how the ratings and appeal process works on Facebook bit.ly/2OFdGjp, or email appeals@politifact.com. Please include a link to the post.
Remember, you can always get new PolitiFact fact-checks in your inbox if you subscribe to the daily or weekly newsletter. Sign up >>
Thanks,
PolitiFact team
Update/Correction note: We changed the background description of this correction request minutes after publication, for the old description belonged to a different correction request made the same day.
Pre-republication update Feb. 12, 2026: We tried updating the link showing what Switzerland paid for various types of insulin, but the link was deprecated and the Internet Archive fell short in accessing the material.