MAINE — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now launched a new ad today in Maine’s second congressional district thanking Rep. Jared Golden for fighting to let Medicare negotiate drug prices and asking him to get the job done by voting for the Build Back Better Act. The campaign includes TV and digital ads featuring patient advocate Kris Garcia, who lives with multiple bleeding disorders including hemophilia. It also includes grassroots advocacy, in which patients will write and thank Rep. Golden for his support of Medicare negotiation and ask him to pass the Build Back Better Act, including legislation to lower drug prices for patients.
“Each infusion of medicine that I need to live costs nearly $40,000. But without it, a minor accident can become a medical crisis for me and a financial crisis for my family,” Kris, a father of three based in Denver, explains in the ad. “For millions of Americans like me, this isn’t about politics — this is about life and death.”
Rep. Golden (ME-02) is a champion for allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. He campaigned on the issue and went on to vote for H.R. 3, a drug pricing measure that would allow Medicare negotiation, in 2019. Since then, he has continued to push for strong drug pricing legislation in an op-ed calling for the reform and a letter calling for inclusion of negotiation in the reconciliation package. Rep. Golden will have the opportunity to vote for passage of the current drug pricing reform legislation in the full package when it heads to the floor.
Watch the ME-02 ad here.
“Jared Golden is fighting to let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices,” the adsays. “Tell Representative Golden, ‘thank you,’ and we’re counting on him to lower drug prices by voting yes for the Build Back Better Act.”
Below is a digital ad also running in the district:
“Rep. Golden has been a real champion for patients from day one. We want him to hear loud and clear: Thank you. A vote for the Build Back Better Act is a vote for patients and lower drug prices, and we have his back,” said David Mitchell, a patient with incurable blood cancer whose drugs carry a list price of more than $900,000 per year and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “Medicare negotiation is the most popular part of the president’s Build Back Better Act, and 94 percent of Mainers in Rep. Golden’s district support the policy, which would lower drug prices. It’s time to get it done. ”
On Capitol Hill, Senate and House leadership along with President Biden are working to craft a reconciliation package that includes legislation to let Medicare negotiate and has the support of all Democratic members of Congress. The current House version of the package includes H.R. 3, a comprehensive bill that allows Medicare to negotiate lower prices, which recently advanced out of the Ways and Means Committee.
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