Evans: House Passes Drug Bill to Lower Costs for Most Americans Price of Insulin Up 197% in 10 Years; HR 3 Would Help

PHILADELPHIA (Dec. 12, 2019) – Congressman Dwight Evans (D-PA-3rd) voted today for landmark legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs for most Americans. The bill includes two other health-care bills Evans authored or co-sponsored.

"Philadelphians and people across the country pay too much for insulin and other life-saving prescription medications. The price of insulin has gone up 197 percent over the past 10 years! House Democrats passed the Elijah Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act to do something about that. President Trump hasn't kept his promise to let Medicare negotiate drug prices, but House Democrats are taking action," Evans said.

For the most-used insulin medications, Pennsylvanians currently spend up to $20,000 per year. The bill the House passed today (H.R. 3) could lower the average total cost of the insulin NovoLOG Flexpen by 76 percent, from about $19,800 to $4,800 per year. Under the bill, some commonly used forms of insulin would cost as little as $400 per year.

Overall, the bill would level the playing field for American patients and taxpayers by:

• Giving Medicare the power to negotiate directly with the drug companies, and creating powerful new tools to force drug companies to the table to agree to real price reductions, while ensuring seniors never lose access to the prescriptions they need.
• Making the lower drug prices negotiated by Medicare available to Americans with private insurance, not just Medicare beneficiaries.
• Stopping drug companies from ripping off Americans while charging other countries less for the same drugs, limiting the maximum price for any negotiated drug to be in line with the average price in countries like ours, where drug companies charge less for the same drugs – and admit they still make a profit.
• Creating a new, $2,000 out-of-pocket limit on prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries, and reversing years of unfair price hikes above inflation across thousands of drugs in Medicare.
• Reinvesting the hundreds of billions of dollars in savings in the most transformational improvement to Medicare since its creation – delivering vision, dental and hearing benefits – and turbocharging the search for new cures.

Evans said the bill also includes legislation he sponsored with Reps. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Delaware). That legislation would allow 3.5 million more seniors to qualify for the Medicare Savings Programs, which could save them each hundreds of dollars per year.

The bill also includes Evans' legislation to improve the Health Profession Opportunity Grant (HPOG) program, which supports education and training to low-income health professionals to help them move into health-care occupations that pay well and are expected to either experience labor shortages or be in high demand.

Evans' bill would require HPOG grantees' case management plans to offer a career coaching service as part of the plans, with an option also to provide high-quality mentoring and peer support as needed to ensure success in this health care training program.

"The bottom line is House Democrats are continuing to investigate AND legislate. This landmark bill joins hundreds of other bills we have passed this year, including the Raise the Wage Act, which would provide the first national minimum-wage increase in 10 years; and gun background-check bills that would save lives. The Senate needs to listen to the people and act on these bills!"

Evans spoke on the House floor Wednesday evening about the drug-costs bill. Video of his remarks is available at www.facebook.com/RepDwightEvans/