The Democrats’ hyper-partisan drug pricing plan is a detriment to patients and the future of medical research

The Democrat’s hyper-partisan drug pricing plan guts the very incentives necessary to encourage investment in further research and development after medicines are approved, giving the government the power to pick winners and losers for lifesaving medicines.

While some would have you believe this is “negotiation,” it isn’t. It’s government price setting that does little to address patient affordability and will decimate the competitive ecosystem in the United States that has brought hope to so many Americans in the form of new medical advances where before there were none. No matter what they call it, this plan will result in the same outcome: negative consequences for the patients with the most need.

America’s biopharmaceutical companies’ patient-centered agenda proposes common-sense solutions to make medicines more affordable:

Modernizing how Medicare covers and pays for medicines by:  

• Capping out-of-pocket costs in Part D, lowering cost sharing and spreading those costs over the calendar year, and making sure the savings negotiated with health plans are passed to patients; and
• Implementing a market-based adjustment in Part B that would allow the government and seniors to benefit from more of the savings already negotiated in the commercial market, which could save some seniors hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars each year. 

Making insurance work like insurance by:  

• Covering more medicines from day one;
• Making out-of-pocket costs more predictable;
• Ensuring cost-sharing assistance applies to deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums; and
• Sharing negotiated savings with patients at the pharmacy counter.

Protecting the safety net by:  

• Maintaining coverage of medicines for vulnerable patients served by Medicaid; and
• Driving greater oversight and transparency of the 340B program to ensure that hospitals and other entities are using the discounts manufacturers provide to serve needy patients, not siphoning resources away from patients.

Ending misaligned incentives by:  

• Tying the fees pharmaceutical supply chain middlemen charge to the services they provide, not the list price of a medicine; and
• Fostering the competitive market for medicines while also providing needed incentives for continued biopharmaceutical innovation.

These reforms benefit patients and also protect future innovation. We need these types of long-term solutions — not temporary fixes that don’t address the root problems in the health care system — to help those who need it the most.

Learn more at www.PhRMA.org/BetterWay.