Letter to Senate HELP Committee on Prescription Drug Costs

December 12, 2017

Letter to Senate HELP Committee on Prescription Drug Costs

Letter

Senator Lamar Alexander
Chairman
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

Senator Patty Murray
Ranking Member
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

Dear Senator Alexander and Senator Murray:

The undersigned partners of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage’s Prescriptions for Affordability initiative write to you regarding the upcoming hearing on December 12th entitled, “The Cost of Prescription Drugs: An Examination of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Report ‘Making Medicines Affordable: A National Imperative.’”

We support access to affordable care through policy solutions that encourage competitive markets, which will lower drug costs, promote innovation and support appropriate access to treatment. We are concerned the report calls for more government intervention in markets that would limit patient access while shifting costs to other payers. For example, the report proposes consolidation of pricing decisions across all government health programs (i.e. Medicare, all 50 state Medicaid programs, VA, etc.). We believe this will dramatically reduce choice and access for beneficiaries and ultimately shift significant costs to the private sector.

These proposals are not new; many Senators on the HELP Committee have previously supported some of the reforms suggested in the report. We are concerned, however, that these proposals do too much to harm consumers and divide stakeholders rather than drive consensus.