The Hill – 1/16/20
The health insurance industry is donating big to Democrats even amid criticism of the industry and growing calls for “Medicare for All” from the progressive wing of the party.
By Margarida Jorge and Frank Clemente
The newly passed House bill allowing Medicare negotiations on drug prices is a first step toward taming Big Pharma and broader corporate abuse.
Last week’s House vote to rein in skyrocketing prescription drug prices was overdue. Now it’s up to the Senate and President Donald Trump to take action.
By BEN JEALOUS
If enacted, H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Prices Now Act, would, for the first time, give the government the power to negotiate lower drug prices for millions of patients enrolled in Medicare, and millions more with private insurance. The stakes are huge: Not only would this save Medicare $500 billion over the next decade, these savings would be used to expand benefits to include dental, vision and hearing coverage and help low-income seniors pay out-of-pocket costs.
By ROBIN TANNER
My mother is one of the 7.4 million Americans who depend on insulin to manage their diabetes.
With insulin prices nearly doubling from 2012 to 2016, my family and millions of others have been forced to cut corners to afford their life-saving medication, all while drug corporations have raked in billions in profits, including two companies based right here in our state.
BY SARA EWING-MERRILLSPECIAL TO THE PRESS HERALD
People who take insulin are among those hardest hit by spiraling expenses. A new medication pricing bill would help them.
Americans agree that prescription drug prices are too high. Countless individuals and families across the country are grappling with impossible choices between buying the medication they need to stay healthy and paying the bills. And with no prescription is that truer than insulin.
BY MITCH LENETT
Amid the ongoing health care debate in Washington, the House of Representatives will soon consider game-changing legislation that would provide relief to the American public from the high costs of prescription drugs.
BY MARTY HENDERSON, PATRICK CAROLAN
In the United States, 30.3 million people live with diabetes. One in four of those people — about 7.5 million people — is forced to ration insulin because of the high price of this life-saving drug. Proverbs 15:27 tells us: “He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house.”
No one should die because they have been priced out of purchasing a lifesaving medicine that costs no more than $6.16 to produce. It costs about as much to produce a vial of insulin as it does to get an ice cream cone, so we must ask: How does insulin end up costing people with diabetes $350 per vial?