Published: October 2021

Americans need drug pricing reform now

Consumer Action joined more than 60 national, state and local groups in urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to resist demands from some caucus members seeking to weaken the Medicare drug price negotiation policies in the Build Back Better Act. The bill aims to lower drug prices for millions of Americans by allowing Medicare to negotiate certain drug prices, penalizing drug companies that increase their prices faster than inflation, and adding an out-of-pocket cap to Medicare Part D. Advocates warn that weakening this popular policy would allow Big Pharma to continue to gouge Americans and profit from exorbitantly high drug prices.

Coalition members urged members of Congress to deliver on the years-long promise to negotiate Medicare drug pricing with Big Pharma as part of the Build Back Better Act. This is an important opportunity to deliver for the American people, and for seniors, in particular, who are still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. far outspends any other country for pharmaceuticals, and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices would produce hundreds of billions of dollars in savings that could be reinvested in bolstering Medicare coverage and helping more Americans get the life-saving drugs they need.

Lead Organization

Public Citizen

Other Organizations

AIDS Healthcare Foundation | American Federation of Teachers | American Medical Student Association | Be a Hero | CASA in Action | Center for Popular Democracy | Communications Workers of America | Community Catalyst | Consumer Action | Doctors For America | Equal Rights Advocates | Global Justice Institute of Metropolitan | Community Churches | Health Care Voices | Indivisible | International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) | Just Care USA | Main Street Alliance | MomsRising | MoveOn | National Nurses United | National Organization for Women | Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice | Our Revolution | Partners for Dignity & Rights | People's Action | PrEP4All | Prescription Justice | Progressive Democrats of America | Protect Our Care | Public Citizen | R2H Action [Right to Health] | Rights & Democracy | Social Security Works | T1International | Voices for Progress

More Information

To read the coalition letter in full, please click here.

For more information, please visit Public Citizen.

 

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