SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Eveleth patient Travis Paulson, who lives with type 1 diabetes, will testify in front of the Minnesota House State Government Finance and Elections Committee this afternoon in support of the bipartisan legislation HF 801, which would establish a prescription drug affordability board designed to address the high prices of prescription drugs for Minnesotans.
Paulson was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 14 and has struggled to keep up with the high price of insulin in recent years. His insulin, which he needs to survive, currently costs $300 a vial, which comes to $1,500 per month. Paulson has had to work odd jobs, living paycheck to paycheck in order to stay alive.
“Unfortunately for me, years of rationing insulin has caused long-term complications that never would have occurred if I had access to affordable insulin,” Paulson will tell the committee.
“These out-of-control drug prices have serious consequences for Minnesota patients and contribute to excessive costs for the state. We need our state government to pass House File 801, which would rein in drug prices while increasing transparency around the pricing practices of drug companies. Because drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them.”
HF 801 would:
The hearing and Paulson’s testimony can be watched here at 6:00 PM CT.
The bill was previously heard in the House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee, where patient advocate Ramae Hamrin testified in support of the bill. It passed out of committee on a 11 to 7 vote.
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DENVER — As rising drug prices continue to crush patients and the window for Congress to act closes, Patients For Affordable Drugs Now expanded its multi-million dollar campaign into Colorado to ask Sen. Cory Gardner to support a key bill in the Senate that would protect Americans from unjustified drug price hikes.
Watch the ad campaign video, “Ashley.”
Currently, the average American pays two to three times more for prescription drugs than citizens in other wealthy countries. The Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act of 2019 would curtail runaway price hikes in America and cap out-of-pocket costs for patients on Medicare, who can face more than $15,000 a year in drug costs.
“President Trump supports the Senate bill, and now, we’re asking Senator Gardner to join in calling for a vote on this important legislation,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “Patients are asking him to stand with us — not Big Pharma.”
Today’s ads are part of the multi-million dollar campaign Patients For Affordable Drugs Now launched last month that features patients speaking out in support of proposals in the House and Senate to rein in skyrocketing drug prices. The campaign features TV, digital, and radio ads across the country that show the toll high prescription drug prices are taking on everyday Americans. In addition to paid media, the effort features visits from patients to Washington to share their stories in person and gives patients a suite of tools to contact their representatives in support of lowering drug prices.
Big Pharma is spending millions to distort, demonize, and relentlessly attack these proposals because the changes could actually break the rigged system that keeps pharma profits high and patients’ costs skyrocketing.
Americans overwhelmingly support action to lower drug prices. Eighty-six percent of Americans — majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — support allowing Medicare to negotiate. Nearly 1 in 3 adults report not taking their medicines as prescribed due to cost.
The mission of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is to educate the public and mobilize patients to advocate for policies to curb runaway drug prices in America. Touted by The Hill as “a leading drug pricing advocacy group,” Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is a bipartisan non-profit organization established under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Service code. As a 501(c)(4), P4ADNow engages in electoral activity and direct advocacy in support of legislation that would lower drug prices.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Patients applauded California Governor Gavin Newsom today after he signed a first-in-the-nation law that will stop Big Pharma from cutting deals that block less-expensive generic drugs for state residents — a tactic that limits patient choice and costs taxpayers billions each year.
“Californians are done with Big Pharma’s shadowy pay-for-delay deals that block cheaper generic drugs,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “We are so glad Governor Gavin Newsom and the state assembly heard patient voices and turned AB 824 into law. We hope state legislatures across the country next year take up California’s pioneering approach to stop deals that hurt patients, and we applaud the efforts of Assemblymember Jim Wood and Attorney General Xavier Becerra for spearheading the successful effort.”
Leading up to the law’s passage, Californians wrote hundreds of letters in support of Assembly Bill 824.
Campaigner Cynthia Stockton, 73, a Sacramento retiree who lives with a seizure disorder, a brain tumor, and is a paraplegic, has been forced to ration food to pay for her medicine. Stockton advocated for Californians by supporting AB824 on social media and in a Sacramento Bee op-ed and editorial.
“They (pharma) just pay the companies off and keep these big-dollar prescriptions going so that generics are not made available,” she told the Bee. “And that made me mad because it’s like mafia control…so I started speaking up.”
In support of the measure, Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, a Washington, DC-based patient advocacy organization that takes no money from the pharmaceutical industry, ran a 5-figure campaign, including digital ads to give Californians tools to contact their representatives in support of the legislation through letter writing and phone campaigns.
The new law will:
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