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House Democrats are under attack for supporting Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “socialist prescription drug takeover” in a new television advertising campaign run by a Republican group.
American Action Network, a political nonprofit group affiliated with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, is spending more than $4 million to run ads in a dozen districts held by incumbent Democrats. The spot dings the Democrats for H.R. 3, dubbed the Lower Drug Costs Now Act, claiming the bill would stifle the ability the research and development of new, life-saving prescription drugs by imposing federal limits on what pharmaceutical companies can charge for medication.
FILE - In this June 15, 2018, file photo, pharmaceuticals are seen in North Andover, Mass.
Maine health care advocates are joining a national push to demand that Congress pass legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
Bath resident Sarah Luciana says, as a Type 1 diabetic, she’s at times been forced to ration her insulin.
“I remember walking up the stairs to my house after work, gasping for breath wondering if I was going to die, she says.
Luciana, politicians, and organizers associated with the healthcare initiative Protect our Care are urging the U.S. House to pass the Lower Drug Costs Now Act initially passed in the Senate in 2019.
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H.R. 3’s international reference pricing misses the mark
By Susan Peschin
Adobe
The White House and Congress have declared that reining in Medicare prescription drug costs to help older adults and people with disabilities is a top priority. But one drug pricing strategy on the table would have an outsized negative impact on people with Alzheimer’s disease and decimate research trying to find effective treatments for it.
This strategy, known as international reference pricing, ties the price that Medicare pays for some drugs to those paid by other countries. The idea was first introduced as a model for Medicare Part B drugs by then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar in 2018. The next year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drug pricing plan, known as the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3), significantly expanded the scope to allow federal government use of foreign price controls in direct negotiations with pharmaceutical companies for the cost of 250 prescription medicine