Following House Vote, Shaheen Calls on Leader McConnell to End the Foot Dragging on Addressing Prescription Drug Costs and Allow Senate to Vote
**This sweeping legislation also authorizes $10 billion in funding to address the opioid epidemic**
(Washington, DC)—U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) issued the following statement after the House of Representatives passed broad legislation to address prescription drug costs:
“The dramatic rise in prescription drug costs is a full blown crisis and it’s long past time for the Senate to act,” said Shaheen. “As Americans have painfully learned, the greed of Big Pharma knows no limits which is why it’s necessary for Congress to make sure that the public can afford the prescriptions they need to remain healthy and active. In New Hampshire and all across the country, patients are dangerously rationing their medications and having to choose between prescriptions and other needs like buying groceries and paying utility bills. The legislation the House has passed takes common sense steps to reduce costs for patients, including allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prices for prescriptions, including for insulin, just as the VA does, and establishes a new cap on seniors’ out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs. It also provides much needed funding to help address the substance use disorder epidemic that is killing hundreds of Granite Staters every year.”
“The foot dragging to address prescription drug costs has gone on long enough — Mitch McConnell must commit to bringing this bill up for a vote.”
Senator Shaheen is leading efforts in the Senate to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. She is spearheading a bipartisan effort to roll back over a decade of insulin price hikes through her Insulin Price Reduction Act. Senator Shaheen has also advocated for legislation that would allow for Medicare to negotiate drug prices on behalf of seniors, and continues to support bipartisan efforts to help reduce the costs of prescription drugs by allowing individuals to safely import FDA-approved prescription drugs from Canada. She introduced the Biologic Transparency Act of 2019, bipartisan legislation to encourage competition in the prescription drug marketplace and put an end to the harmful patent strategies that block new drugs from coming to market. She also introduced the End Taxpayer Subsidies for Drugs Ads Act of 2019 to eliminate tax deductions that pharmaceutical companies use to pay for drug advertising, which ultimately increases consumer demand and gives companies leverage to increase their drug prices. Shaheen’s bill would ensure taxpayer dollars are not used to subsidize drug advertisements.
