Right now, Big Pharma is bankrolling an ad campaign worth tens of millions of dollars against the reforms that would allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices.
Even worse? The ads are purposefully misleading. Why? They want to scare patients and prevent any drug pricing reform from passing into law. So, let’s get the facts.
Here’s why these claims are false:
Congress wants to repeal a provision in Medicare that protects access to medicines.
These ads reference Part D’s “non-interference clause,” which has nothing to do with determining which drugs patients can access under Medicare. The non-interference clause simply prohibits the Secretary of Health and Human Services from negotiating lower drug prices for patients and taxpayers.
It’s the high drug prices that patients face due to the Secretary’s inability to negotiate that limit access to drugs patients need.
Medicare negotiation proposals would enable bureaucrats to decide which drugs Medicare beneficiaries get.
There are no congressional proposals that would change Part D’s long-standing policy of covering every drug in six protected classes, drugs for all conditions, and at least two medications in each drug class.
Drug price negotiation bills simply aim to achieve affordable prices for taxpayers and patients.
Negotiation would reduce access and “make it harder for people on Medicare to get the medications [they] need.”
Negotiation would not prevent patients from accessing their medications.
The biggest barrier to patient access is high prices. Right now, 1 in 3 adults do not take medication as prescribed due to cost. Without reform, more than 1.1 million Medicare patients could die over the next decade because they cannot afford to pay for their prescription medications.
Medicare negotiation would stifle research and development.
Right now, drug companies lack incentive to take risk and invest in R&D for innovative new drugs because they are allowed to block competition and raise prices at will on old drugs to drive profits and trigger executive bonuses.
Medicare negotiation would actually reward clinically meaningful new drugs with prices that stimulate investment and innovation. And the most important new drugs are built on taxpayer-funded science. Current bills in Congress increase government spending to ensure continued innovation.
Medicare negotiation would import “European-style price controls.”
Negotiation is a core tenet of a free market, not “European-style price controls.” The government negotiates for everything it buys, from aircraft carriers to copy paper.
The pharmaceutical industry is the only health care sector exempt from negotiation with Medicare, meaning it has the ability to dictate prices to the government. The proposal for negotiation would simply end special treatment for Big Pharma.
Policy proposals like H.R. 3 would eliminate jobs in the biomedical sector.
The Congressional Budget Office found that the pharmaceutical industry could see a decrease in revenue of up to $1 trillion over 10 years and only reduce the number of drugs coming to market by about 2-5% over a decade. Given that we are only talking about 2-5% fewer drugs, drug corporations’ claims of widespread job loss are far-fetched. Moreover, increasing government spending on R&D through the National Institutes of Health will help fuel more drug development and job opportunities in the private sector.
The AFL-CIO and other organizations that protect workers and jobs support Medicare negotiation.