This month, New York State can take an important step to fight the ever-increasing prices of prescription drugs.
It comes down to one person — someone who has shown an appetite for taking on the big drug companies on behalf of all New Yorkers: Gov. Hochul.
There’s a bill on her desk right now that would force drug makers to disclose major price increases before they happen.
Prescription drug price transparency laws hold the big drug companies accountable for large price increases and have already passed in other states; New Yorkers, too many of whom have to choose between filling life-saving prescriptions and paying rent, buying food, and affording other essentials, should enjoy that same transparency.
In a state and nation where drug companies charge three times what other countries pay for the same drugs, requiring manufacturers to tell us how much and when they’re raising prices on the medicines we need is the least we can do.
Yet the pharmaceutical industry, as it’s doing and has done across the nation, is fighting this legislation — just like it did when the bill was moving through the Legislature. The bill eventually passed the Assembly unanimously and with an overwhelming, bipartisan vote in the state Senate.
Now it’s up to the governor to sign the bill into law; she has until Dec. 23 to act.
Hochul got the ball rolling on the drug price transparency fight. Earlier this year, she included in her state budget proposal some of the most comprehnsive prescription drug oversight and price transparency provisions in the nation.
The final state budget negotiated with the Legislature in the spring did not include those provisions, but fortunately lawmakers passed a similar bill that must be signed or vetoed by the governor before the end of this year.
The legislation would require prescription drug manufacturers — before they increase the price of any drug by more than 16% — to provide the state with the details, along with an explanation whether a change or improvement in the drug necessitates the price hike 60 days before the increase takes place. All this information would be posted on a public website.
Already, 19 states have enacted more than 26 drug transparency laws, which have provided valuable information for legislators to target future actions and could discourage drug companies from making big price increases.
Vermont, the first such state to enact a transparency law, reported an almost 80% decline in the number of drugs with price increases of at least 15% in its Medicaid program between 2016 and 2020. Oregon’s transparency law resulted in 70% fewer reports of price increases over their threshold of 10% or higher for drugs priced at $100 or more between 2019, the program’s first year, and 2020.
The bill sponsors say the required rationale for price increases would help reveal whether a hike would fund research and development or merely increase health care costs.
List prices on more than 1,200 prescription drugs rose by an astounding 31.6% on average — far higher than the general rate of inflation — between July 2021 and July 2022, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report.
And a national AARP survey of registered voters 50 and older found cost is the primary reason for deciding not to fill a prescription.
Prescription drugs are a lifeline for millions of older adults across New York State. Transparency laws hold pharmaceutical companies accountable by forcing them to disclose their price increases, as well as a justification for their behavior.
One of the leading causes of the rise in health care premium costs is the increase in prescription drug prices. According to a recent Families USA article, “What many Americans might not know is that not only do high and rising drug prices drive up health care costs for people at the pharmacy counter, but they also drive up health care premiums and deductibles and are often experienced in the form of reduced wages.”
AARP New York is not alone in urging the governor to sign S599A/A1707A, sponsored by state Sen. Julia Salazar and former Assembly Member Dan Rosenthal; 41 other organizations across the state joined AARP New York in sending the governor a letter last month urging enactment of the Salazar-Rosenthal bill.
And AARP New York delivered more than 3,200 letters from members across the state to the governor’s office urging her to act.
Gov. Hochul has led the way on prescription drug price transparency and affordable health care. She has the opportunity to advance this impressive track record by signing this bill into law. Doing so would help all New Yorkers afford the medications they need.
Finkel is AARP New York State director.
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