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Tell Congress: Lower Drug Costs by Holding Middlemen Accountable
Protect Patient Access in Minnesota
Protect Innovation and Jobs
Hold Middlemen Accountable
Tell Congress: Lower Drug Costs by Holding Middlemen Accountable
Congress must act this year to rein in health insurance companies and their pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and their abusive practices that drive up health care costs and make it harder for people to get their medicines.
Fortunately, there is momentum in Washington to hold these middlemen accountable. But we need your help to make sure Congress gets it done in a way that helps patients.
Insurance companies use PBMs to decide what medicines people can get and what people pay out of pocket. Just three PBMs control 80% of the prescription drug market, and they operate in a black box with little transparency and accountability. These middlemen profit off a business model rife with conflicts of interest:
• Middlemen often force patients to pay more for medicines than insurance companies pay.
• Middlemen steer patients to pharmacies they own to pad their bottom lines
• Middlemen benefit from higher prices, which leads to higher costs for everyone.
Right now, Congress is considering legislation that would increase transparency of PBMs. But transparency alone is not enough. If Congress is serious about holding PBMs accountable and lowering medicine costs for patients, they need to pass a bill that will:
• Prevent patients from paying more for their medicines than PBMs and insurance companies.
• Require that PBMs receive a fixed fee for their services, instead of charging exorbitant fees based on the price of medicines that can lead to higher costs for everyone.
• Allow patients to get the medicine their doctors prescribe at a pharmacy that’s convenient for them, not one that pads the profits of PBMs.
Contact your Member of Congress today and urge them to pass PBM reforms that actually help patients access and afford their medicines.
Protect Patient Access in Minnesota
Tell Governor Walz to Reject the Prescription Drug Affordability Board
Lawmakers in Minnesota have proposed legislation to Governor Walz that would create a so-called “prescription drug affordability board.” While the name might sound good, it is bad for patients and will allow government bureaucrats to arbitrarily decide the value of the medicines Minnesotans need.
Under a prescription drug affordability board, the state would evaluate whether certain medicines and treatments are “worth” paying for, meaning the state’s bureaucracy could come between people and the treatments their doctors prescribe. This spells disaster for people by potentially creating barriers to getting life-saving medicines.
If Minnesota is serious about making medicines more affordable, then it needs to avoid policies that could limit patients' access to medicines while failing to stop insurance companies and their middlemen from gaming the system. These multibillion-dollar health insurance companies and the middlemen they work with – called pharmacy benefit managers – already make patients pay more for medicines than they do. This legislation has no guarantee that middlemen would treat patients any differently at the pharmacy counter. It should be no surprise they support a proposal that could repeat the same scheme for higher profits for them.
The government board also threatens the crucial R&D that’s necessary to continue fighting devastating diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS and many others. A recently enacted federal law with similar policies is already having an impact on this important medical innovation. A recent survey of biopharmaceutical companies found that 82% or more of companies with pipeline projects in cardiovascular, mental health, neurology, infectious disease, cancers and rare diseases expect “substantial impacts” on R&D decisions in these areas.
Despite what proponents say, it’s clear that this proposal risks increased barriers to medicines, threatens future treatments and cures and could line the pockets of those who would benefit most – insurance companies and the pharmacy benefit managers they work with.
Tell Governor Walz to reject the Prescription Drug Affordability Board in the omnibus commerce bill, and line item veto the appropriation for the board. Stop threatening access to medicine and failing Minnesotans who need real solutions.
Protect Innovation and Jobs
Tell Congress: The Biden Administration Should Protect American Innovation and Jobs
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is considering waiving requirements to protect American intellectual property (IP) on COVID-19 treatments abroad, following a harmful and unnecessary decision in June to do the same for COVID-19 vaccines – referred to as the TRIPS waiver. This means that other countries, such as China and India, would be permitted to allow local companies to use the IP of American companies to make copycat COVID-19 treatments abroad. The Biden Administration can stop the WTO from allowing this to happen.
The Biden Administration should ensure that the WTO does not further undermine medical innovation by expanding the TRIPS waiver to treatments. Here’s why:
There is no supply shortage for COVID-19 treatments, and therefore no need to increase production abroad. Supply exceeds demand for COVID-19 treatments for all variants, disease severity and patient settings.
Global collaboration has succeeded in fighting COVID-19, with voluntary agreements providing access to treatments to more than 125 low- and middle-income countries.
Expansion of the TRIPS waiver would harm global health and America’s global competitiveness, economic and job security, and medical innovation leadership.
The Biden Administration must reject expansion of the TRIPS waiver to protect American jobs and instead focus on last-mile distribution and administration challenges around the world to make a real impact for people trying to access treatment for COVID-19.