| Summary: Big Pharma has spent decades raking in record-breaking profits, lining shareholder profits and boosting CEO pay by price-gouging patients on everything from insulin to cancer drugs. Americans pay 2-3 times more for the same brand-name medications as their counterparts in other countries largely because in the United States, the drug corporations have monopoly power to set prices and keep them high. But now, things are changing. In 2022, President Biden and Democrats in Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act that made historic changes to Medicare, the nation’s largest purchaser of prescription medicines which provides coverage to over 60 million seniors and people with disabilities. And, although Big Pharma is fighting to overturn the new law, it’s already saving patients and taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Once the Medicare negotiations provisions are implemented, millions more enrollees will get more affordable medicines for common health conditions.
But implementation of the IRA Medicare reforms is only a first step. We must extend these savings to also benefit people with private and individual coverage so that millions more Americans can get lower drug prices they need. |
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- Right now, Americans pay 2-3 times MORE for the same brand name drugs as patients in other countries.
That puts lives at risk, forcing millions to ration medicine, skip doses or forgo prescriptions to pay for other necessities.
Congress must pass the Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act (HR 4595) so that everyone, regardless of their insurance, can afford trips to the pharmacy.
- The only reason that Americans pay so much for prescription drugs is #BigPharma greed, and we’ve had enough.
From insulin to cancer drugs, we need #LowerDrugPricesNow.
- Talk about backwards: as #BigPharma corporations rake in record-breaking profits on taxpayer-funded prescription drugs, 3 in 10 Americans report struggling to afford their medications.
THIS is why we’re fighting for lower drug prices.
- #Big Pharma has fought reforms to lower prices for decades and they aren’t going to give up now. But no matter how many lawsuits they file to overturn Medicare negotiations, we are going to keep fighting for #LowerDrugPricesNow.
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- #BigPharma loves to claim that lowering drug prices means less money for research and development, but most research on new drugs is funded by taxpayers, not corporations. We can’t trust drug corporations to put patients ahead of profits and new medicines can’t help people if no one can afford them.
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- Thanks to the #InflationReductionAct, Medicare enrollees will see lower negotiated drug prices, capped costs on their insulin, and an out-of-pocket prescription cost cap.
Now we have to keep fighting to make sure that everyone, regardless of their insurance, can afford their medications.
- The #InflationReductionAct made historic improvements to prescription drug affordability for people on Medicare, but we still have further to go before every patient can afford trips to the pharmacy.
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