Will the Democrats use budget reconciliation to pass a prescription drug bill?
A Senate committee hearing yesterday set the stage for the Biden administration and the Democrats’ narrowly-controlled legislature to take up prescription drug pricing reform. But the same political question surrounding the passage of the COVID-19 stimulus bill is likely to affect how the Democrats approach it: what do the handful of center-right Senate Democrats want to do?
The hearing, chaired by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), featured just one patient testimony — Elia Spates, a Vermonter living with type 1 diabetes. Spates says she pays over $10,000 in commercial insurance premiums every year, but still has to pay $2000 out of pocket for her insulin every month.
“It is completely asinine to think I would go to another country to buy inexpensive medication,” she said, of being encouraged to travel to Canada to buy her insulin, “and yet pay for a health care plan in my own country that is only compounding my diabetic problems.”
The roster of other testimonies reflected the new balance of power in the Senate: two academics ready to discuss the menu of reforms at the disposal of the Democrats, and one conservative think tank fellow to whom the Republicans could address nearly all of their questions, and who seemed all too eager to reiterate the pharmaceutical industry’s favorite buzzword: “innovation.”
As ever, the Senate’s abundant power to hear and enact solutions is clear, though the habit of letting the pharmaceutical industry in on the discussions persists. But is there a chance that now, for a brief moment, those voices will be sidelined?
Politico reports that pharmaceutical industry lobbyists are desperately worried about the possibility. The maneuver in question is whether the Democrats will attempt to include a provision on prescription drug prices in an upcoming budget reconciliation bill. The Washington Post reports that such a provision is likely to mirror H.R. 3, a bill that passed through the House in 2019 that would’ve allowed Medicare to negotiate the price of 250 of the most prescribed brand-name drugs and impose penalties for price hikes.
But only some Democrats seem comfortable passing legislation through reconciliation without consulting the Republicans. Lobbyists are particularly eager to direct their efforts to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), according to Politico, the beneficiary of a load of pharmaceutical cash during her last election and (somewhat infamously) one of the Senators responsible for voting down the resolution to increase the minimum wage as part of the COVID-19 stimulus package. Still, lobbyists are worried — and patients may be encouraged — that the drug price negotiation may have a leg up over other components of the Democrats’ plan in that it purportedly saves the federal government money rather than costs anything.
As the story unfolds over the next few months, it’ll be worth re-examining H.R. 3 and tracking the political evolution of Sinema and other center-right Democrats.
Small doses
Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks made $68 million in 2020.
Mutual Aid Diabetes announced that they’re taking aid requests through their website now.
Investigate Insulin Now, a campaign to get the FTC to investigate the Big Three insulin manufacturers run by the American Economic Liberties Project, hosted a panel last Wednesday with Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), long-time insulin advocate and Insulin Initiative co-founder Laura Marston, Cameron Hall and Matt Dinger from T1International, and more. Rep. Porter closed her statement by talking about the “most expensive” earrings she owns — earrings crafted from empty insulin vials by #Insulin4All advocate Morgan Coburn.
Medicare For All was reintroduced in the House of Representatives last week. Catch the bill’s main co-sponsor Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) on the Intercept’s Deconstructed podcast talking about what’s new this year and why it’s still worth paying attention to even in the Biden era.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed a $30 copay cap on insulin for those with state-regulated insurance.
Now for something evergreen: being a belligerent bigot is still not considered a symptom of diabetes. Frontier reports on the response from the diabetes community after a high school basketball announcer in Oklahoma who was caught on a hot mic calling teenage girls the n-word tried blaming his diabetes for the racist outburst.
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That’s all for today’s Shot. As always, I’m eager to hear from you about what you’re wondering about, what's bugging you, and what I’m missing.
-EP