Patients Deserve Prescription Pricing Protection

High drug prices will continue to plague retirees because of pharma companies controlling US Senators, unbridled drug company greed, and patent law shenanigans.

Earlier this month, Arizona Capitol Times’ Morning Scoop panelists spoke about drug companies’ refusal to grant Medicare patients a discount on their escalating drug prices.

“Drug prices are soaring so people of all ages are skipping prescription drugs because they can’t afford them,” Arizona Capitol Times wrote in its Morning Scoop flier.

Indeed, Americans pay three times more compared to residents in other countries.

“In Arizona that cost grew 69 percent faster than the average resident’s income from 2015 to 2019, forcing many to choose between medication and rent, groceries or other necessities,” the flier states.

George W. Bush’s Part D Act

The dysfunctional U.S. system resulted from George W. Bush’s decision not to grant Medicare patients discounted drug prices when enacting Medicare Part D in 2006.

At the time, AARP was furious that while the Veterans Administration receives a 40 percent discount on drugs, Bush ignored the 25 million people eligible for the Part D drug program.

“Let me set the landscape,” said Dana Marie Kennedy, State Director AARP AZ, one of four Morning Scoop panelists.

“Some generic drugs—the bulk of all drugs sold in the U.S — cost $1,000 a day. “Drugs that treat cancer and hepatitis, for example.”

Retail prices for about 180 widely used prescription drugs climbed 8 percent last year in contrast to inflation, which increased 1.3 percent, Kennedy said.

Insured or Not, You Pay

“I’m referring to those who don’t have insurance because if you have insurance, you only pay a fraction of these prices.

“However, the price affects insured people as well, whose premiums are steadily increasing.”

“There’s really nothing in the US health care system to stop drug companies from setting these high prices and then increasing them anytime they want,” Kennedy concluded.

Will Humble, executive director for the Arizona Public Health Association, noted the President’s Build Back Better plan includes a provision that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

Everyone keeps talking about the $3.5 trillion over 10 years that Build Back Better would cost, Humble said.

They don’t recognize the savings the federal government [and taxpayers] would achieve by slashing drug prices.

However, Congressmen and women might not give a damn. ”Drug companies have a chokehold on Congress through their PAC’s campaign contributions,” Humble noted.

House Rule 3

Another possible solution is HR 3, which passed in December 2019 and is being taken up again.

The law would allow Medicare to negotiate the prices of name-brand drugs.

There are penalties so that if drug makers don’t negotiate fairly, the federal government can sanction them, Humble noted.

“But if you think about what the drug companies could end up doing is, let’s say next year Medicare negotiates drug prices on100 drugs.

“What’s to stop the drug companies from saying ‘here’s a brand-new list [that’s non-negotiable?]” Humble said.

Sinema Refuses to Negotiate

One of the highest-polling concerns among both the GOP and Democrats is allowing Health & Human Services to pare down Medicare prescription drug prices.

However, corporate shill Senator Kristen Sinema, a supposed Democrat, does not support drug company negotiations with Medicare. That’s because she took $750,000 in donations from pharma companies.

AARP released a poll last week finding 94 percent of 800 voters surveyed say Medicare should be allowed to negotiate prices with drugmakers.

Approximately, 88 percent say Congress needs to act now to make this possible.

“Why isn’t Sinema allowing Medicare to negotiate when 94 percent of her constituents want just that?” asked Leigh Purvis, Director of Health Services Research for AARP.

Patent Shenanigans

“When most people think of patents, they think, ‘you get a 20-year term to protect your monopoly, and then competition starts,’” said Miranda Motter, senior vice president of state affairs and policy for America’s Health Insurance Plans.

“Unfortunately, that’s not the way it’s happening. “There’s something called patent thickets, where companies patent everything they can.

“A drug you probably heard of is Humira [indicated for rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and related conditions]. It has over 250 patent applications, Motter said. “That helps prevent competition because you can’t enter the market until all of those patents have expired.”

“We’re also seeing things like evergreening, where drug makers are tweaking a product and receiving a new patent for the minimal change.

These shenanigans are also called product hopping, Motter said.

Drug manufacturers need cash cow drugs to thrive, so when a blockbuster medicine loses its patent, drug makers slightly modify the product and shift the entire market to a new, expensive pharmaceutical.