WASHINGTON, DC — In response to House passage of H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, issued the following statement:
“Patients scored a major victory in the fight for lower drug prices today. We applaud the House of Representatives for passing this landmark legislation that will expand Medicare benefits, support innovation, and save America billions of dollars from lower drug prices.
“The House has done its job. Now the Senate must act.”
BACKGROUND
H.R. 3 would:
- Let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices and extend lower prices to all Americans with public or private sector insurance.
- Save $456 billion from drug price negotiations and reinvest $358 billion back into Medicare to add new dental, hearing, and vision benefits for seniors on Medicare.
- Cap out-of-pocket spending at $2,000 for Medicare beneficiaries. Currently, seniors can pay more than $15,000 a year for a single prescription drug.
- Stop drug company price gouging by requiring corporations to pay a rebate if drug prices increase faster than the rate of inflation.
- Support innovation and new drug development by investing savings from Medicare negotiations into the world-class research being done at the NIH, and which can be targeted to unmet need and public health priorities.
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