The recent dustup over a Senate budget resolution in which 13 Democrats (including Sen Cory Booker) crossed over to the Republicans to vote no on promoting importation of prescription meds should continue to be stirred. There were 12 renegade Republican senators who crossed over the other direction to vote in favor of it. It would have passed if not for the votes of the wayward Dems. 33 faithful Dems + 12 renegade Republicans=45. We needed just 6 of those 13 not to vote the way they did. It is a bipartisan issue. This is the time to fight pharma and finally do something about the prices of rx medications!
Importation by individuals, plans and and pharmacies is one of many ways to address prices but it is an important one. It is said that there were no specifics or framework in this recent resolution for ensuring the safety of imported meds. Sen Tester (D-MT) in explaining his vote said it would have allowed a surge of counterfeit medications. But it was not necessary that the resolution have those kinds of details. It was a general instruction to the Senate Budget committee to agree to allocate for, in a budget neutral way, incoming bills that allow importation of meds in a "safe and affordable way”-details to be worked out later in those specific proposed bills.
It is also said that the vote was for show, meaningless, because chairman Sen Enzi would still block any bills harmful to the profits of pharma. But I remember reading an editorial by Sen Sanders last summer (I wrote a diary about it) in which he cited a Kaiser poll (2015) about how much Republican responders hate the high cost of meds, too.
In fact, Republican constituents cared MORE about doing something about the price of drugs than they cared about repealing the ACA.
Public anger continues to rise as evidenced by the popularity of the Sckrelli/Daraprim, the Epipen, the albuterol, the insulin, the chronic leukemia/Gleevec, Makena, Harvoni etal, the colchicine/gout, MS meds stories among many others out there. Most everyone or someone they love is touched by high medication prices in some way. People are suffering and will be suffering even more from the ,”financial toxicity” of meds. When meds cost more than their house every year or more than a college education there is something wrong. Those patients pay when insurers find ways to squirm out of coverage by putting effective meds in lower tiers or making them nonformulary, and we all pay through higher premiums. They just shouldn't cost so much in the first place. Then there are the many shenanigans and fraud and pharma monopolies. And the horribly flawed R&D process. I remain convinced that if only Sanders or Clinton had repeatedly emphasized drug price lowering policy ideas as a main issue maybe one of them would be getting inaugurated instead. Especially Sanders has some fabulous policy ideas beyond importation.
Now is the time to push hard for lower drug prices while pushing for other things, whenever wherever in any part of the legislative process, whether it has teeth or is just symbolically taking a stand. Before TPP is somehow resurrected and obscene prices are set in permanent monumental stone forever. This issue may actually give way. Republican committee chairmen such as Sen Enzi will face their own constituent pressures. While demanding to save the ACA or its pillars, let's also ask our politicians to fix one of it's main flaws- the lack of policy to lower prescription drug prices. We all pay with high premiums. We need new resolutions about it. And if we are going to lose health insurance let's at least make some of the meds more affordable.