Rep. Rice must vote for fair drug prices

Alan Perlman, who lived in Oakdale for 36 years, is a perfect example of why Rep. Kathleen Rice and her colleagues in Congress need to pass legislation to bring down the costs of prescription drugs. Perlman recently told us he was "shocked" when he went to the pharmacy to fill a prescription from his cardiologist for a heart medication. The charge: $442 for a 30-day supply — with his Medicare coverage. It would have been $808 without insurance.

"I declined it initially," said Perlman, 75, who now lives in Dutchess County. His doctor wound up providing samples, and they agreed the brand name drug — which has no generic version yet — worked for him. Perlman did some research and found that in Canada, the medication cost less than half the covered price he was facing.

Sadly, Perlman is far from alone. In a recent AARP survey, more than half of voters over 50 were worried about being able to afford the medications they or their family members need.

It’s no wonder that older adults worry about the cost of prescription drugs. AARP has tracked price trends for nearly two decades, and our research consistently finds that prices for brand-name medications most often used by seniors are increasing much faster than prices for other goods and services. Our newest Rx Price Watch Report looked at specialty drugs that treat complex, chronic conditions and found that the average cost to use one of these drugs for a year was $84,442 in 2020. That’s nearly three times the average annual income of someone on Medicare.

This can’t go on. Congress must act — now. We need Rice, one of a small group of House members whose resistance delayed a vote on the Build Back Better Act and its provisions to reduce prescription drug prices, to vote yes to letting Medicare negotiate lower drug prices.

The good news: There's a deal in Congress that would save both seniors and taxpayers billions of dollars on prescription drugs — and ensure that Americans are paying fair prices for the medications we need. It's outrageous that we have to pay three times what people in other countries pay for the same medicine.

The deal, which AARP has long championed, would help lower prices by:

• Allowing Medicare — with over 575,000 enrollees across Long Island — to negotiate the prices it pays for prescription drugs. Every year, Medicare spends more than $129 billion on prescription drugs. Yet it’s prohibited by law from using its buying power to negotiate with drug companies to get lower prices. Giving Medicare the power to negotiate would save taxpayers and people on Medicare $117 billion and lower prescription drug costs for all Americans.
• Creating an annual out-of-pocket cap on what people on Medicare pay for prescription drugs. No one should have to choose between buying medicine and paying for food or rent.
• Requiring drug companies to pay a rebate if they raise the price of existing drugs faster than the rate of inflation. Our Rx Price Watch Reports have found that this happens year after year — and Americans would pay far less for their medications if those prices only rose as fast as other goods and services.

Americans are sick and tired of paying the highest prices in the world for their prescription drugs. Rice needs to stand with older Americans, not the drug companies, and vote for the deal to lower drug prices now.

This guest essay reflects the views of Beth Finkel, the state director of AARP New York.