ICYMI: White House Principles for Reducing Drug Costs

Washington – The White House today released a statement of principles in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal mirroring the bipartisan Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act authored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Earlier this year, President Donald Trump recognized Grassley’s work to lower prescription drug prices in his State of the Union address.

 

“There’s one bipartisan bill in Congress that can pass the House and Senate and be signed into law by President Trump. And that’s the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act,” Grassley said. “I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to lowering prescription drug prices. Ranking Member Wyden and I have been working with the Trump administration since the beginning of last year to draft a bill and get it across the finish line. It’s been endorsed by President Trump, Vice President Pence and Secretary Azar. Our bipartisan bill meets the principles outlined by the White House. It caps out-of-pocket expenses, allows for cost spreading, restructures part D to encourage lower prices and limits drugmakers’ year-over-year price hikes. It should get a vote in both chambers of Congress this spring.”

 

Excerpts from the op-ed can be found below.

 

A divided Congress in a presidential election year may seem an unlikely setting for the first major drug-pricing reform in decades, but over the past year common goals and designs have emerged to set up a rare opportunity. President Trump in his State of the Union address called on both parties to “get something on drug pricing done, done quickly, and done properly.” During times when our country faces public health challenges, America’s strength in pharmaceutical innovation is recognized as an asset we must employ. The administration’s goal is to help patients, including seniors, afford the drugs they need, not destroy this vital industry. The White House urges Congress to adhere to the following five principles:

 

• Cap out-of-pocket expenses in Medicare Part D. …

 

• Provide an option to cap monthly pharmacy costs. …

 

• Offer protection against the cost cliff created by ObamaCare. …

 

• Give insurance companies an incentive to negotiate better prices for costly drugs. …

 

• Limit drugmakers’ price increases. …

 

These White House principles for drug-pricing legislation are achievable. They have been endorsed by members of Congress from both sides of the aisle.

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President Trump has made lowering prescription-drug costs a priority and is willing to invest political capital to work with both parties.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has committed to work toward a drug pricing-package by May 22, when health-care provisions in last year’s appropriations deal expire.

 

Congress should capitalize on this opportunity and work with the administration to reject special interests, reject partisan posturing, and provide relief to the American people.