Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, unfortunately, there is just no wonder drug that will cure prescription price gouging. And with many prices for drugs rising at 10 times the rate of inflation, and with an unaffordable drug being 100 percent ineffective for the many that cannot afford it, many Americans are really desperate.

In this Congress, we have another lost year of failing to address prescription price gouging. Now, on election eve, we take this miniscule step forward. A few of the many consumers who have been scrimping to get their medications, could at least find out if by paying cash, they can get a particular prescription at a lower price. No longer will gag provisions deny pharmacists the right to counsel about this issue.

After learning about this problem about two years ago, I consulted with experts, with patient advocates, with pharmacists about these clauses, and asked the CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to prevent this administratively, which they could have done, but they failed to do so.

Finally, months ago this year, I filed two bills as companion legislation to the measures we are considering today by Senators Collins and Stabenow, and was joined by 32 Members of the other house in supporting and sponsoring those measures.

This Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act, the House version of it, was endorsed back in June by the National Community Pharmacists Association, thereafter, by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, and by the American Psychiatric Association.

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Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, I am pleased that finally our House Republican colleagues have agreed to approve this proposal today. With families nationwide concerned about soaring drug prices, this legislation would end a restrictive, anticompetitive, and anticonsumer provision for those who rely on ObamaCare in the marketplace and for group employer ERISA plans.

I must note, however, that of all the many bills I have either introduced or supported from other colleagues dealing with excessive medication costs, this is the most narrow of the proposals out of all of them.

Instead of really saving lives, some may view this as simply a life preserver for those who have ignored prescription price gouging for the past two years. Approving this modest, narrow bill is not a substitute for tackling the pervasive problem of prescription price gouging.

Pharmacists are not the only ones who are, apparently, gagged. Right here in this Congress, some seem to be unable to find their voice and vote for real reform that would lower drug prices when we are outnumbered by two pharmaceutical lobbyists for every Member of this House of Representatives.

Repeated attempts to pass measures that would lower prices have been blocked. Republicans even blocked my amendment to the opioid legislation to authorize the Trump administration to negotiate the price of naloxone, the lifesaving opioid overdose reversal drug whose prices soared by 700 percent.

During the past week, Big Pharma, with considerable help from the Republican majority leader, sought to hitch a ride on this very same opioid legislation to get an unrelated $4 billion gift. It is enough to make you gag. Hopefully, we have got that stopped.

Passage of this bill today is one modest step that we can take, but so much more is needed. That this bill even counts as progress, demonstrates how far we have to go. And while this bill brings some transparency to the pharmacy counter, the transparency which is most needed is comprehensive legislation like the Transparency Drug Pricing Act that I have introduced, to shed some light on where the prices get set. And that is by the manufacturer who hides the whole process through discounts, rebates, and fees.

Now, we all know that President Trump solved the problem with his Rose Garden press conference early in the summer when he announced that prices are going down. But I have yet to find anybody who has benefited from that announcement. And, in fact, the Associated Press just analyzed drug prices since that announcement and they couldn't find any company that had made any significant reduction on prices.

And when questioning the executives of 24 large drug companies, the AP didn't find a single one committed to cutting prices.

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Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, the attitude was best captured by one pharmaceutical executive who within the last month said that he had a, ``moral requirement . . . to sell the product for the highest price.''

Today's two minor prescription drugs bills are being passed in this process that is called ``suspension.'' But let's not create any further suspense for families that are in need on their healthcare costs. Let's approve real, comprehensive prescription drug pricing reform in a new Congress that is not indifferent to the needs of American healthcare consumers.

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