Drug pricing plan a 'colossal disappointment, will reduce your access to medicine |Opinion
Luke Russell is executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Ohio.
Federal lawmakers are at the plate again, ready to take a swing at prescription drug prices.
Finding a way to lower drug costs for consumers is commendable and necessary. However, the current Senate Budget Reconciliation Bill will miss an opportunity to knock one out of the park.
Earlier in July, some congressional leaders included in the budget bill a drug pricing plan which, on the surface, sounds like a good idea. However, it will have lasting and serious consequences for patients.
More: Seniors' health care suffers due to skyrocketing fees for prescription drugs, pharmacists say
The drug pricing plan put forth rehashes forced price-setting policies on selected drugs in the Medicare Part D program. Such government overreach will result in reduced access to medicine for patients and it will discourage innovation of new medicines.
The plan is a colossal disappointment because it’s short-sighted. Federal lawmakers, including Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, are working diligently on comprehensive solutions to lowering drug costs.
More: Brown: 'This is the first time we are close to getting real action' to cut drug prices
Sen. Brown, along with patient advocates, medical providers, and other health policy experts recognize that drug costs are determined by more than just “Big Pharma” and that other entities in the drug supply chain must be considered for reforms that could lower out-of-pocket costs for patients.
Readers of The Columbus Dispatch know that this newspaper has been at the forefront of reporting how some practices of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and health insurers contribute to higher costs for patients, in terms of premium increases, unfair reimbursement policies that impact pharmacies, and co-insurance costs.
More: How to submit guest opinion columns to the Columbus Dispatch
With this exposure of some pharmacy benefit manager practices, policy makers know so much more about the drug supply chain and the factors that influence the cost burden to patients. It’s truly discouraging that the current drug pricing plan ignores the influences of pharmacy benefit managers and health insurers.
Lawmakers have an opportunity to advance sweeping reform that examines every aspect of the drug supply chain and ensures that every participant is working to lower costs for patients.
The reports and studies on pharmacy benefit manager practices can inform the important drug pricing policy work that faces our lawmakers.
In addition, lawmakers need to keep in mind that consumer spending on prescription medicines has risen just 1.9% over the past year. Considering how high rates of inflation have affected other consumer goods, the cost of medicines has not experienced excessively higher costs.
As Congress considers this current drug pricing plan, Americans will repeatedly hear that it’s “time for Medicare to negotiate drug prices.” While this may sound reasonable, it is misleading.
More: Fears ease on new pharmacy deserts in Ohio: 'The state is going to save a lot of money'
The starting place for this proposal is that government dictates prices on selected drugs, and if drug manufacturers do not accept the proposed price, then they are slapped with a 95% “penalty tax.”
This is hardly a negotiation.
And this forced price-setting will compromise the ability of manufacturers to continue robust investment of innovation of new treatments.
Consumers’ out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs should be lowered. We need to encourage our federal lawmakers to develop comprehensive drug pricing reforms, that not only hold drug manufacturers accountable but also include some practices of pharmacy benefit managers and health insurers.
It can be done, if federal lawmakers choose to do the work and swing for the fences.
Luke Russell is executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Ohio.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Opinion: Drug pricing reforms needed to lower out-of-pocket costs
