Democrats Use Drug Pricing Report To Boost Support For Build Back Better Act

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. House Democrats released a report that dived into big pharma’s drug-pricing practices. They said prices not only skyrocketed over a few years, but that these pharmaceutical companies need to be held accountable and they want to do that through legislation. Republicans are pushing back on this, saying they don’t support the democrat’s legislation that would focus on it.  

The House Oversight and Reform Committee, along with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, released a massive 269 page report zeroing in on pharmaceutical company’s drug pricing practices.

Over the past three years, the Committee reviewed 1.5 million pages of internal company documents which included internal strategy documents, communications and non-public pricing data. They found that over the past five years, companies raised the price of brand prescription drugs by 36 percent.

“First we found American drug companies targeting American patients for price increases in large part because Medicare is prohibited from negotiating lower prices,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D- NY).

The report said these internal documents provide significant new insights into the tactics drug companies use to raise prices and keep them high by suppressing competition. The Dems are using this report to help bolster support for the Build Back Better bill, where in that legislation, people on Medicare will pay no more than two-thousand a year for their out of pocket medicine expenses and put a cap on insulin costs to no more than 35 dollars a month.

“This is a situation where we can end pharma’s outrageous price hikes, that’s what we have to do,” said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D- CA).

Republicans have strongly fought back the BBB saying it will be too costly. Representative Tom Reed (R- NY), who is also against the BBB bill, has long advocated for lowering insulin costs, he told us: “We care about lowering the out of pocket cost of insulin for those impacted by diabetes and that is why we supported Former President Trump’s cap on the cost of insulin, which President Biden later rescinded. This is a classic example of Washington ‘playing politics’ and not wanting to give the other side a ‘win’ as real Americans suffer. This must stop. The ‘Build Back Better’ Bill is another example, it will crush American families, workers, and small businesses and that is why I cannot support it.”

The senate has not yet voted on the BBB legislation.