NEWS: Sanders, Khanna, Doggett, Welch, Bush Introduce Sweeping Legislation to Lower Drug Prices

[Donkees]

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-khanna-doggett-welch-bush-introduce-sweeping-legislation-to-lower-drug-prices/

WASHINGTON, March 23 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Reps. Ro Khanna, (D-Calif.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Cori Bush (D-Mo.), along with more than two dozen colleagues, on Tuesday introduced sweeping legislation to drastically reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the United States.

The package of bills includes: The Prescription Drug Price Relief Act to peg the price of prescription drugs in the United States to the median price in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan; The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs under Medicare Part D; and The Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act to allow patients, pharmacists and wholesalers to import safe, affordable medicine from Canada and other major countries.

The measures are overwhelmingly supported by the American people. Seventy-two percent of Americans favor allowing the importation of prescription drugs from Canada, 92% of the American people support allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, and 79% percent of Americans say the price of prescription drugs is too high.

The Prescription Drug Price Relief Act, if enacted, would lower most brand name drug prices in the United States by 50%, according to economist Dean Baker. Additionally, the U.S. government could save close to $360 billion over 10 years if Medicare negotiated the same prices for drugs as people in Canada pay, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Last month, a report released by the Congressional Budget Office, commissioned by Sanders, found that on average Medicare Part D pays nearly three times more for brand-name drugs than Medicaid.

In 2020, five of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. made $44.9 billion in profits. That same year, in the midst of a horrific pandemic and economic crisis, drug makers raised their prices of more than 860 prescription drugs by 5%, on average. Meanwhile, one in four Americans cannot afford their medicine.

In Canada and other major countries, the same medications, manufactured by the same companies in the same factories, are available for a fraction of the price compared to the United States. In 2019, Americans spent $1,128 per person on prescription drugs while Canadians spent $879 and people in the U.K. spent $526.

➡️Cosponsors in the Senate of The Prescription Drug Price Relief Act include Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

➡️Cosponsors in the Senate of The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act include Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

➡️Cosponsors in the Senate of The Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act include Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore).

[Voltaire2]

1. This is YUGE!

[Beringia]

2. Great

[essaynnc]

3. Yuge it is!

Oh, and by the way, I must have missed something.... I didn't see a single R after any of the co-sponsor's names. It must have been a mistake, cause you know for sure that an R would indicate that people's lives were just as important as obscene pharmaceutical company profits!!!!!!

I can hear it now...."they won't let us play too! we want bipartisanship." !!! We want to water down your bills so they have absolutely no effect whatsoever.....

[ColinC]

4. Especially since they will be the first to take credit for it after they fail

To vote for it.

[Hortensis]

5. These are reintroductions of bills senate Democrats tried to bring

to the floor in 2020 and that died with the end of that session. They and the house Democrats' Elijah Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act will be repassed now and then reconciled with each other.

Of course the Republicans would do their best to stop it from being passed into law if they could, either on its own or included in our giant infrastructure Build Back Better Act, still being put together. But we'll do it!

[dalton99a]

6. Kick