Issue Position: Lowering the Price of Prescription Drugs

Issue Position

Because of pharmaceutical price gouging, a diagnosis of cancer or other dreaded disease or condition is too often a prognosis for financial ruin or hardship, even for those who have insurance. I have made this issue a top priority as Chairman of the House Ways & Means Health Subcommittee. My first hearing tackled the topic of rising drug costs, and I have introduced a bill, the Drug Price Transparency Act, which would use the American principles of competition and negotiation to help drive drug prices down. I also lead the Prescription Drug Task Force, which is working to stop prescription drug price gouging like the outrageous hike in the cost of the EpiPen.

As pharmaceutical drug prices continue to soar, we need federal legislation to reform the broken system of incentives and loopholes that allow companies to get away with sky-high prices. I have urged the President to use his existing legal authority to provide much-needed relief. For example, when pharmaceutical companies use taxpayer-funded research to develop budget-busting drugs, the Administration should use existing law to ensure that people are given access to the medicine at a fair, reasonable price. After all, an unaffordable drug is 100% ineffective.

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