The Sun - Working Across the Aisle to Tackle Prescription Drug Costs

Op-Ed

By: Elise Stefanik

As I continue to meet with constituents across the district, healthcare issues such as cost, quality, and access continue to be of significant concern.

Throughout my time in Congress, I have worked to deliver bipartisan results to improve North Country healthcare.

I was proud to lead the legislative effort to reauthorize funding for Community Health Centers that support over 95,000 patients in our district, and I worked to pass a 10-year authorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program that supports over 21,000 vulnerable children across the North Country.

These were major bipartisan victories and results that will have an immediate, significant impact on our district.

At my recent town halls in South Glens Falls and Moriah, one issue raised by constituents was the high cost of prescription drugs.

North Country families continue to struggle with expensive prescription drugs, and in fact, one in four people across the country have reported difficulty affording their medications.

In his State of the Union address in January, President Trump said addressing prescription drug costs is one of his highest priorities, and he is preparing a major speech on the issue later this week.

I wanted to take this opportunity to address constituents with the details on my efforts in Congress to tackle high prescription drug costs.

One of the major obstacles to accessing affordable drugs is a slow approval process at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

On average, it takes about 12 years for an experimental drug to move from the laboratory to your local pharmacy. Last Congress, I was pleased to support the 21st Century Cures Act that was signed into law. This legislation made many reforms to our healthcare system, including streamlining our FDA approval process so that patients can receive affordable, generic treatments in a timelier manner.

Additionally, it increases accessibility to clinical trials and improves the FDA's ability to hire scientific experts.

We also must address the tremendous costs associated with research and development (R&D).

One way to help reduce R&D costs is by supporting this innovation at the federal level so these costs are not borne by the drug manufacturers, and thus passed down to consumers.

Since I arrived in Congress, I have consistently voted and advocated in support of increased funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world's premier institute for medical and public health research.

In fact, in the last government funding bill, I supported a $3 billion spending increase, bringing NIH's total budget for 2018 up to $37 billion.

In rural districts like ours, the 340B program is another important component of reducing prescription drug costs. The 340B program allows drug manufacturers participating in Medicaid to help safety-net hospitals and community health centers provide their patients with 25 to 50 percent discounts on medicines and other life-saving services. This drug pricing program enables vulnerable and uninsured patients to access prescription drugs and other treatments that they otherwise would not be able to afford.

I am an outspoken supporter of this program and have cosponsored legislation (H.R. 4392) that would fight back against proposed cuts to certain drugs that are covered under the 340B program.

I have also cosponsored legislation, the Prescription Drug Price Transparency Act, which imposes greater transparency standards on pharmacy benefit managers to ensure that drug pricing information is better passed along to consumers and incentivizes pharmacists to promote more affordable, generic drugs.

In addition, I recently cosponsored the Prescription Transparency Act, which protects a patient's right to know about lower-cost drugs when visiting their local pharmacies.

Currently, pharmacy benefit managers can include "gag clauses" in contracts preventing pharmacists from alerting consumers at the counter when there is a medication available that may be cheaper if they pay for it out-of-pocket. This bill prohibits the use of "gag clauses," which I believe can lower costs for many constituents.

There is still much more work to do to bring down the costs of prescription drugs for families in our district.

As President Trump details his ideas and plans to address this important issue, I will be listening intently and look forward to continuing to lead on this issue in Congress.

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