Mr. President, this body has a long record of
coming together to improve health care for Americans. In 2003, we worked in a
bipartisan manner to establish the Medicare Part D benefit.
More recently, I’ve worked with my Finance Committee
colleagues on oversight investigations to hold EpiPen manufacturers accountable, who were misusing
taxpayer dollars; insulin manufacturers and PBMs accountable, who were unfairly
increasing the list price of insulin; and our organ donation system accountable, by
investigating its troubling underperformance.
We can work together and meaningfully improve
health care. This Congress, I’ve worked with my Democrat colleagues to
introduce eight bills to lower drug costs.
In the past year alone, we’ve passed five of my bills out of
committee
on a bipartisan basis. They will lower drug prices and create more competition
– while holding Big Pharma and PBMs accountable. Unfortunately, the majority
leader hasn’t brought any of these bills up for a vote – even
though they would easily pass the Senate.
But this hasn’t stopped me from trying to find
other ways to help bring down the cost of medications.
In 2019, as Finance Committee chairman, I began
a bipartisan committee process with the Ranking Member from Oregon to lower the
cost of prescription drugs. The bill is called the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act.
We held three committee hearings to learn from
policymakers and advocates while also holding Big Pharma and PBMs accountable.
We held a committee mark-up, where the bill
passed 19 to 9 – on a bipartisan basis. We continued to hold additional
negotiations to make improvements to the bill. It contained stuff I liked and
didn’t like. But that’s bipartisan legislation.
Today, it’s still the only comprehensive
prescription drug bill that can garner more than 60 votes on the Senate floor.
I recently outlined on the floor the
bill’s details in case the majority party has forgotten. I won’t restate every
part of my July 20th speech, but here are some of my bill’s key measures:
·It lowers costs for
seniors by $72 billion and saves taxpayers $95 billion.
·It establishes an
out-of-pocket cap, eliminates the donut hole and redesigns Medicare Part D.
·It ends taxpayer
subsidies to Big Pharma by capping price increases of Medicare Part B and D
drugs at inflation.
·It establishes
accountability and transparency in the pharmaceutical industry.
·And the bill is bipartisan.
Believe it or not, a bipartisan bill limiting
pharmaceutical increases is possible. Compare this to what the majority has offered:
·Their partisan bill includes
more reckless spending and tax increases.
·Their partisan bill
reduces the number of new cures and treatments.
·Their partisan bill
fails to enact any bipartisan accountability for Big Pharma & PBMs.
Even while the majority party has decided to
pursue a purely partisan bill in secret over the past 20 months, I’ve continued
to meet with Democrats and Republicans to advance my bipartisan and negotiated
bill.
I’ve met or spoken with: President Biden &
White House staff, Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, HHS Secretary Becerra, House
Democrats who wanted a bipartisan bill, the Problem Solvers Caucus Health Care
Working Group, Congressman Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, Congresswoman
McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington, Democrat Senators Sinema and
Carper and many others.
I wanted a bipartisan bill to pass this Senate.
We could still pass the Prescription Drug
Pricing Reduction Act. My colleagues know it. Several of them have thanked me publicly on my bipartisan work to
lower prescription drug prices.
Sadly, they’ve chosen a different route. They’ve
chosen a bill that contains zero PBM accountability. It gives middlemen a pass.
They’ve chosen a bill that contains none of the 25 accountability and
transparency provisions that had bipartisan consensus in my bill. This
includes:
·Ending DIR clawbacks that
are hurting patients’ pocketbooks and small/independent pharmacies;
·Ending “spread pricing”
in Medicaid that is driving up taxpayer costs;
·Requiring sunshine on PBMs
through financial audits, so we know the true net cost of a drug; and
·Requiring sunshine on excessive
drug-price increases and launch prices of new high-cost drugs.
None of these bipartisan accountability and
transparency provisions are included in their bill.
Finally, one last thing I would like to address
about my colleagues’ reckless tax and spending bill. I’ve heard some of my
colleagues on the other side say this bill’s prescription drug provision is
Grassley-Wyden. That is untrue.
This is a reckless tax and spending bill. It’s
not bipartisan, and no reporter should accept or repeat that notion. I oppose
the partisan bill because it’s a long list of reckless tax increases and
spending.
This is not the bipartisan prescription drug
bill that passed out of the Finance Committee 19 to 9.
Mr. President, I’ve filed the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act as
an amendment today.
We could strike and replace this reckless tax
and spending spree with comprehensive drug-pricing reform that could garner
more than 60 votes – and lower drug prices while holding Big Pharma and PBMs
accountable.
We could actually enact meaningful
accountability and transparency in the pharmaceutical industry. I’ve filed that
amendment too.
We could pursue PBM transparency and accountability.
I’ve filed that amendment too.
As I’ve said throughout this Congress: I will
work with anyone who wants to pass the bipartisan and negotiated Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act.