WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, last week U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan emphasized the need to lower health care and prescription drug costs for American families at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, while warning about the disastrous consequences of the Republican budget law on patient access to care.
To watch Senator Hassan’s hearing questions, click here.
Senator Hassan highlighted the Inflation Reduction Act, which she helped get signed into law in 2022 and allows Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. “Thanks to the first round of negotiations, seniors will see lower out-of-pocket prices for 10 drugs beginning in 2026, including medications that treat common conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease,” said Senator Hassan.
However, Senator Hassan expressed concern about Republican efforts to undermine these cost-saving measures, saying that Congressional Republicans “are now working to undermine the negotiation program, starting with their move to exempt certain drugs from negotiation as part of the Republican budget bill that just passed. This will make some drugs, such as cancer drugs, more expensive for seniors in the coming years.” When Senator Hassan asked Dr. Adam Gaffney, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, about the impact of the exemptions on cancer patients, Dr. Gaffney was clear: “When the price of drugs goes high, when it hits people’s pocketbooks, they go without them... And what happens is, is people sometimes die.”
Senator Hassan also addressed the growing issue of unfair hospital billing practices. She shared the story of a constituent who had a routine urologist appointment covered by insurance, but then received an unexpected $1,000 room fee from the hospital that owned the practice. Dr. Brian Miller, Associate Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, agreed that facility fee billing practices are “terrible” for patients, saying that “there’s zero transparency.”
Senator Hassan then warned about the severe consequences of the Republican budget bill, saying that it “cut more than a trillion dollars from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, kicking millions of Americans off of their coverage in the coming years.” Dr. Gaffney outlined the stark impacts, including surging premiums for ACA plans and higher prescription drug prices for low-income seniors. Senator Hassan followed up about the potential for “pediatric health deserts” as safety net providers lose Medicaid dollars due to the drastic cuts, with Dr. Gaffney answering, “Either they’re going to cut services, cut staff, or close. It’s not rocket science.”
Senator Hassan is focused on lowering health care costs for Americans. Senator Hassan previously led successful bipartisan efforts to help eliminate surprise medical billing, which has prevented millions of surprise bills. Senator Hassan also helped pass into law three bipartisan measures to increase access to generic and biosimilar medications. Additionally, the Inflation Reduction Act included a number of key provisions that Senator Hassan pushed for to take on Big Pharma and address the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs, including allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices.
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