Affordable Insulin Now Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 6833.

Americans are rightly concerned about the price of prescription drugs, but Democrats are trying to solve this problem in the wrong way, as usual. Instead of discussing bipartisan, commonsense legislation to address the rising costs of prescription drugs, we are debating H.R. 6833. This radical bill is another attempt by the left to advance a government takeover of prescription drug pricing.

Don't be fooled. This legislation is a Trojan horse. H.R. 6833 claims to address insulin prices, but what it actually does is opens the door to government price controls without addressing the root problem, which is the rising cost of insulin.

H.R. 6833 won't lower costs. It is a smokescreen that will raise premiums for workers and seniors when inflation is at a 40-year high.

Why are Democrats knowingly raising healthcare premiums on the majority of Americans when so many Americans are struggling to pay for gas and put food on the table? Four out of five Americans in large group plans already pay under $35 a month for insulin. This bill will raise healthcare costs for the vast majority of working Americans.

When insurers are required by the Federal Government to cover an insulin product, this allows manufacturers to raise the price of insulin indiscriminately. Since insurers can charge only $35 a month out of pocket to the patient, the insurer must make up for the increased cost of insulin by raising premiums for all beneficiaries. With a lack of competition in the market, this bill removes the bargaining power insurers use to keep insulin prices low, leading to increased insulin prices and higher premiums.

This legislation will only worsen the root problem of high insulin prices, which is a lack of competition in the market. H.R. 6833 will lead to fewer approved generic insulin brands, making the insulin monopoly even worse. If Democrats really want to decrease the price of insulin, they should pave the way for more competition, not less.

This legislation will cost taxpayers $11 billion, giving the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services $1.5 million in fiscal year 2022 to administer these drug-pricing caps. Trusting the Washington bureaucracy to manage drug pricing and distribution is a mistake. This legislation would be the largest expansion of Federal control over Americans' private health insurance since ObamaCare.

We must stop the Federal Government from wedging its foot in the door of our healthcare system and moving us one step closer to a socialist, single-payer system for Medicare for All. In fact, this week, the chair of the Progressive Caucus said she was ``fighting to make it the law of the land.''

H.R. 6833 sets a dangerous precedent. If the Federal Government can set prices for insulin, what is to stop it from implementing price controls for every drug on the market or in every other sector of the economy?

The free market is the reason the United States outpaces every other country in developing lifesaving cures and treatments, particularly countries with socialized medicine. Federal drug-pricing mandates will discourage medical innovation, resulting in fewer cures, which will keep Americans from receiving the therapies they rely upon.

Instead of perpetuating Obama-era schemes to expand Federal controls over Americans' health insurance, the Biden administration and congressional Democrats should bring to the floor H.R. 19, the bipartisan Lower Costs, More Cures Act.

Every single provision in H.R. 19 has bipartisan support. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree that this legislation will lower healthcare costs and protect America's status as a leading healthcare innovator.

Furthermore, H.R. 19 sets a new standard in healthcare affordability. This bill caps seniors' out-of-pocket insulin costs at only $50 a month in the Medicare program. It also allows for high-deductible insurance plans to cover insulin before a deductible kicks in, and it increases the availability of low-cost options for treatment in the marketplace.

The cost of insulin, like most healthcare costs in this country, are climbing rapidly. Yet, total Federal control is not the solution.

H.R. 6833 is a perfect example of legislative trickery. This bill will lower out-of-pocket costs for insulin for a minority of Americans by bloating premiums and other healthcare costs for the majority of Americans and leave our healthcare system worse off.

Supporting socialist drug pricing isn't a solution, which is why I am rejecting this one-sided, harmful bill. I urge my Democrat colleagues to support the Lower Costs, More Cures Act, bipartisan legislation that will lower drug costs for Americans without limiting access to cures.

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman).

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Good).

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I believe I have the right to close, so I will reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I cannot let go past one of our colleagues saying before that we don't believe in helping average people. Yes, we do.

Republicans are here every day. We are average people. We are here to help average people. But what we believe in most of all is freedom for Americans.

And we happen to believe that Democrats don't believe in that, and this bill is an exemplar of the fact that they want the government to control our lives in every way they possibly can.

In the past, Democrats and Republicans have worked together to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, but Democrats have once again pursued politics over progress.

H.R. 6833 is a massive power grab that will lead our country one step closer to socialized medicine. That is not what the American people think and want.

There is no such thing as a free-market system when government bureaucrats control prices. This legislation sets an extremely dangerous precedent.

We shouldn't pursue policies that will harm the health and well-being of American patients, and we should not knowingly raise healthcare premiums on American workers and their families when prices for goods are soaring.

Republicans stand ready to work with Democrats to advance legislation that promotes competition, lowers costs for consumers, establishes transparency and accountability in drug pricing, and advances the cause of freedom.

H.R. 6833 is not that legislation. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.

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