Statement from Margarida Jorge, campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, on the Senate’s delay of the lifting of the Medicaid rebate cap:

The Senate’s decision to delay the lifting of the Medicaid rebate cap shows just how much influence Big Pharma continues to have over lawmakers in Congress. Delaying the implementation of this provision until the next presidential election year almost guarantees that it won’t ever go into effect, denying health coverage to millions who need it most in order to keep boosting industry profits.

Democrats have repeatedly promised to rein in pharmaceutical price gouging and to lower sky-high rates of maternal mortality among Black and Indigenous women. Now, when there’s an opportunity to do just that, lawmakers are once again putting Big Pharma’s interests over the healthcare of patients. By delaying this provision, our Democratic leaders would be turning their backs on the very families they’ve promised to fight hardest for in order to appease drug corporation lobbyists.

House Democrats should reverse the negative change in the legislation and stand up for patients by stopping drug corporation price-gouging in Medicaid in the American Rescue Act.