Drug Pricing
Millions of Americans rely on prescription drugs every day for their health, treating everything from the common cold to cancer.
Out-of-control prices are making it more difficult for hardworking Americans to afford the medications they need to survive. Today, more than 21 cents of every health care dollar goes into the pockets of Big Pharma to pay for prescription drugs – more than any other expense.
Drugmakers create life-saving treatments and breakthrough cures. But the problem is the price – a therapy is useless if no one can afford it.
Big Pharma is making record profits while hardworking Americans and their families have to choose between paying their bills and accessing life-saving medicines. They’re gaming a broken system by price gouging sick Americans when they need help most
Key Stats and Facts
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Drug prices in the U.S. are the highest in the world – a whopping 256% higher than prices in a combined 32 countries
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Drug companies have already raised prices for at least 582 brand-name drugs through the first month of 2021.
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Despite the economic hardships faced by tens of millions of Americans due to the COVID-19 crisis, drugmakers raised prices on 67 brand-name medicines in July 2020 – hiking them at rates even higher than just a year prior.
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Voters overwhelmingly agree (86%) that pharmaceutical companies are responsible for the rising prices of prescription drugs
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96% of Americans agree lowering drug prices is an urgent challenge.
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A strong majority of Americans (86%) feel that the rising cost of prescription drugs is important to them.
THE PROBLEM IS THE PRICE… BUT THERE ARE REAL SOLUTIONS
We’re committed to working with Congress, the Administration, and health care leaders to stop out-of-control
prescription drug pricing.
Stronger Bargaining Power to Negotiate Savings for Patients
Health insurance providers are Americans’ bargaining power, negotiating lower drug prices for them. Together with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), health insurance providers deliver savings for millions of patients. Projections show that over the next decade, health insurance providers and PBMs will save consumers and health plan sponsors more than $1 trillion. Strengthening their ability to work on behalf of patients is an important way to combat excessive prices.
Promote Generic and Biosimilar Competition
Generic drugs have the same chemical makeup of name-brand drugs, while biosimilars have the same effective components. Both are safe, cost-effective alternatives to excessively-priced name-brand drugs. Big Pharma does its best to game the system by exploiting patents and other legal loopholes to keep generics and biosimilars off the market – but it’s simple economics and common sense: competition means lower prices for patients.
Require Pharmaceutical Pricing Transparency
Big Pharma alone controls their prices—and they alone can lower them for Americans today. Instead, they continue to raise prices year after year—even several times a year—making health care more expensive for everyone. Patients deserve to know why. That way, hardworking American families will have all the information they need to make the right health care choices for them. They’ll be able to compare different treatment options, talk to their doctors about more affordable drugs, and limit how much they spend out-of-pocket.
Withdraw the “Rebate Rule”
The rebate rule is a misguided proposal from the prior Administration which would hurt some of our most vulnerable populations—seniors and people with disabilities—by increasing prescription drug costs during the COVID-19 crisis. It would cost America’s taxpayers billions of dollars while transferring billions into drug makers’ coffers. The Biden Administration has taken a strong first step by delaying implementation of this rule. We must ensure this bad policy does not go into effect.
Seniors, hardworking Americans, and their families deserve better.
Check out these helpful fact sheets on related health care issues.
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