Florida patients need new action on prescription drug costs
We are only a few months removed from this year’s legislative session, but priorities are already taking shape for when lawmakers return to Tallahassee in January. There is never enough time to address every challenge facing our state each year, meaning that decisions about what issues to tackle have significant consequences for Florida residents.
Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo recently said that health care will be a focus for lawmakers in 2024, which is welcome news for patients facing rising costs and barriers to health care access. To be effective, however, lawmakers must address the true drivers of high health care costs, like the big drug companies that repeatedly raise prescription drug prices, instead of retreading old debates.
Sen. Passidomo was correct to point out that while more people are moving to Florida, “many of them, probably most of them, are older and they’re going to need health care.” Florida is a destination for seniors nationwide. This is good for the state, but comes with unique challenges.
Seniors often have fixed incomes and are high volume consumers of health care services, meaning that health care cost increases can have a serious effect on their ability to live comfortably. This is especially true for the continuous care that many seniors require, like regular prescription drug regimens.
This spring, lawmakers chose to prioritize the Prescription Drug Reform Act, which Governor DeSantis proclaimed “the most comprehensive legislation in Florida history to increase accountability and transparency for prescription drug costs.” This new law is reportedly being implemented quickly, but it will take time to assess what is working and what is not.
The legislation focused on pharmacy benefits – how patients get their prescriptions – and is intended to apply to Medicare. This means it could change how Florida seniors access medications.
The law impacts pharmacy networks, which are used like health insurance networks to identify lower-cost pharmacies where seniors can pick up prescriptions at a discounted rate. In fact, the Wharton School of Business recently found that Medicare Part D plans that used preferred pharmacy networks saw a 1% decrease in cost; that’s over $1 billion per year across the entire Medicare program. Lower costs for Medicare patients mean lower tax bills for Floridians. Lawmakers should protect cost-saving free-market methods – not impose additional government mandates that would eliminate options like lower-cost preferred pharmacies.
I have reservations about whether focusing on pharmacy benefits was the correct approach to bringing down costs. Instead, lawmakers need to turn the page and address the root cause of high prescription drug prices – big drug companies. Too often, lawmakers return to the same issues and meddle, even before a law goes into effect. Rehashing prior debates is not the best use of resources, and Florida patients can’t afford to have their health care costs continue to increase.
The Prescription Drug Reform Act asks that big drug companies report when they raise drug prices by 15% within one year or by 30% over three years, but doesn’t hold them accountable for their near-constant price increases. After raising the prices of nearly 1,000 drugs in January, drug companies increased prices for more than 100 drugs in July – some by as much as 10%.
Florida seniors depend on access to affordable prescription drugs. When lawmakers prioritize how to spend their limited time, I urge them to focus on making drug companies bring down prices, instead of revisiting recent regulations that haven’t gone into full effect. It’s past time to address the root cause of high prescription drug costs: the sky-high prices set by big drug companies and defended by their special-interest lobbyists.
Randy Ray is the chairman of Senior Consumers of America, a seniors advocacy group that monitors public policy issues at the local, state and national levels. He has called Florida home for more than 30 years.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Florida patients need new action on prescription drug costs
