Here’s who could save money on prescription drugs under Democrats’ bill
California Democrats are touting the thousands of dollars that people with diabetes, HIV, arthritis asthma and cancer could save if a bill to lower drug costs that passed the House of Representatives Thursday becomes law.
The bill passed the House Thursday on mostly party lines, 230-192, and it is considered unlikely to pass the Republican-led Senate.
Denounced by the pharmaceutical industry as “an unprecedented and aggressive government intervention,” the bill would force pharmaceutical companies to negotiate certain drug prices with the federal government or face heavy fines. The new price would be available to Medicare beneficiaries as well as those on private insurance.
The bill would also create a $2,000 out-of-pocket limit for prescription drugs for those on Medicare.
It could have huge potential savings for Californians suffering from certain diseases, Democratic lawmakers say.
“If you think about this, this is the most transformational expansion of Medicare since its creation,” said Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, who helped usher the bill through committee. “This is something that is a North Star for Democrats. This is our moment, and this is what we want to do.”
Here are some diseases common in California and their medications that would see lower costs, according to Democrats:
- An estimated 3 million Californians have diabetes, and most common insulin medications run anywhere from $1,200 to $20,000 per year. This bill could lower the average total cost of the specific insulin NovoLOG Flexpen from about $19,800 to $4,800 per year.
- About a fifth of Californians suffer from some sort of arthritis, and medications can run about $40,000 per year. This bill would lower those costs to about $10,000 per year.
- About 2.3 million Californians live with asthma — an issue particularly persistent in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where air quality tends to trend lower than the national average. The new bill can lower their total costs on most asthma drugs from about $1,400 to $270 per year.
- California is the state with the second-most HIV diagnoses, and the bill could lower their drug costs from about $15,000 to $6,000 per year.
- About 1.8 million Californians are living with some form of cancer, and the bill would lower costs of those medications — which can run over $100,000, by tens of thousands per year.
“This comes down to the promises we made in the election. What I hear again and again as the No. 1 issue, across the Central Valley, is the cost of health care,” said Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock. “One woman told me she had to buy medication for her dog and use it for herself because it was cheaper.”
Pharmaceutical companies have cautioned that this bill would “limit patient access to these extraordinary advancements in health care.”
“This extreme proposal will upend the ecosystem of U.S. biomedical innovation, destroying our ability to attract private investment dollars that allow us to developnew treatments and change the course of health care delivery for so many patients,” the CEOs of more than 100 pharmaceutical companies wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has said he will not allow a vote on the House Democrats’ legislation. President Donald Trump has endorsed parts of the Democrats’ bill, including price negotiation, but Republicans are mostly opposed to legislation that would interfere so heavily in the drug market.
There is a bipartisan bill in the Senate to lower drug costs that the White House has said its supports. The Senate bill does not include the same ability to force pharmaceutical companies to the negotiating table. Matsui said without that provision, the bill would not accomplish the main goal of lowering drug costs.
The Senate bill passed through committee but it is still unclear if or when McConnell, Democrats have referred to as the “grim reaper” of congressional legislation, would bring it to the Senate floor for a vote.
“There are people who have to make a choice between putting food on their table, paying utilities or paying for their medicine. That is unacceptable to me,” said Rep. TJ Cox, D-Fresno.
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
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