Improving Medicaid Programs and Opportunities for Eligible Beneficiaries Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, I extend my congratulations as well to Mr. Barton. It has been a pleasure working with you, sir. Thank you. Also, to Mr. Green, thank you very much for all your service. What an incredible career both of you have had.
My colleagues have talked about the underlying bill, and I am in agreement with what everyone has said.
I wanted to focus attention on an aspect of the bill that was sponsored by my colleague Kurt Schrader and me, and that is a provision that addresses abusive practices of drug manufacturers who intentionally misrepresent their brand drugs as a generic in order to avoid providing a larger discount to the Medicaid program.
My colleagues, whatever our position on the best way to deliver healthcare, one thing we know is the case: It is too expensive. Whether it is taxpayers footing the bill, consumers, or employer-sponsored healthcare plans, it is too expensive. And one of the reasons is rip- off pharma practices.
This is a situation where, oftentimes, brand-name drugs try to keep generics off the market. But this is a case where a brand name tried to pretend they were a generic in order to get a lower price.
I will give an example. In 2016, Mylan misclassified the EpiPen as a generic drug instead of a brand drug, and that allowed them to charge Medicaid a higher price for the drug. Mylan ended up paying $465 million in a settlement to Health and Human Services, but the estimated malfeasance cost Medicaid--which is to say, taxpayers--more than $1 billion.
Simultaneously, Mylan was raising its list price on EpiPen, which parents have to have for their kids who have an allergic reaction, from $103 to $608 over 7 years, a 500 percent increase.
Mylan is not alone. This practice of unrelenting drug price hikes is tried and true for manufacturers.
So I am very pleased that we have included in this bill an end to this abusive practice. We have to make healthcare affordable.
Representative Schrader and I, with this provision, are taking a small step. With the help of our Congress and the passage of this very good bill, we will be taking one more step in dealing with the cost crisis in our healthcare system.
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