news

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a markup on H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act. This landmark legislation would drastically change and transform the price rate pharmaceutical companies can provide for prescription medication.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that drug negotiations alone from this transformative legislation will save taxpayers $345 billion in Medicare Part D Spending over 2023-2029, while the Office of the Actuary found that drug negotiations and Medicare inflation rebates will save households $158 billion and private businesses $46 billion from 2020-2029. 

“Too many hardworking men and women are forced to choose between groceries or their prescriptions. These are choices no one should be forced to make,” said Dingell. “By giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices, the costs will drop for hardworking men and women. Every other industrialized nation in the world does this. We must put hardworking men and women first and do what’s best for them. This bill is a good first step in meeting that goal.”

Video of Dingell during the markup is available here.

H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act, which levels the playing field for American patients and taxpayers, would: 

• Ends the blanket ban on Medicare negotiating directly with the drug companies, and creates powerful new tools to force drug companies to the table to agree to real price reductions, while ensuring seniors never lose access to the prescriptions they need. 
• Makes the lower drug prices negotiated by Medicare available to Americans with private insurance, not just Medicare beneficiaries.
• Stops drug companies ripping off Americans while charging other countries less for the same drugs, limiting the maximum price for any negotiated drug to be in line with the average price in countries like ours, where drug companies charge less for the same drugs – and admit they still make a profit.
• Creates a new, $2,000 out-of-pocket limit on prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries, and reverses years of unfair price hikes above inflation across thousands of drugs in Medicare. 
• Reinvests in innovation and the search for new cures and treatments, using some of the savings from lowering the unjustified drug prices that are bankrolling Big Pharma’s stock-buybacks to reinvest billions of dollars in the search for new breakthrough treatments and cures at NIH.

Dingell is a passionate advocate for improving healthcare and lowering costs for hard-working Americans. In May of this year, Dingell and House Democrats passed legislation that will help lower prescription drug prices and reinforce protections for people living with pre-existing conditions. Dingell has consistently fought back against efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

###