P4ADNow Announces New Jersey Ad Campaign Urging Rep. Gottheimer To Vote For Effective Medicare Negotiation In Build Back Better Act

NEW JERSEY — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now launched a new ad today urging Rep. Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05) to vote for passage of strong Medicare negotiation legislation in 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 call their members of Congress directly asking them 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. Gottheimer (NJ-05) voted for a drug pricing measure to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices in 2019 but is now criticizing the Democrats’ efforts to advance an identical bill as part of reconciliation in the House and is defending the drug industry. He also signed onto a rival drug pricing bill this year that fails to empower negotiation in Medicare Part D, which accounts for 83 percent of Medicare drug spending, excludes most expensive Part B drugs from negotiation, and has a much higher out-of-pocket cap. 

Watch the NJ-05 ad here.

“Josh Gottheimer has a chance to fight for New Jerseyans by letting Medicare negotiate lower drug prices,” the ad in NJ-05 says. “Tell Representative Gottheimer to stand with patients and vote yes on the Build Back Better Act.” 

Below is a digital ad also running in the district:

“90 percent of New Jerseyans in Rep. Gottheimer’s district support allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, and 79 percent think drug prices are unreasonable,” 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. “It is imperative that Rep. Gottheimer seize this moment and deliver on promises to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for Americans.”

P4ADNow also launched ads today urging Reps. Lou Correa (CA-46), Scott Peters (CA-52), Stephanie Murphy (FL-07), and Kathleen Rice (NY-04) to pass strong Medicare negotiation legislation in the Build Back Better Act. These ads come on the heels of P4ADNow’s Arizona ad launch and are running simultaneously with two nationalads that combat Big Pharma’s lies and scare tactics. These ads are part of a seven-figure campaign that includes digital ads running across a variety of websites and news outlets and congressional outreach, where patient advocates are contacting their members of Congress to demand passage of legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate. P4ADNow’s recent ads can be found here. 

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.