Posted: | April 20, 2015 10:27 AM |
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From: | Representative Anthony M. DeLuca and Rep. Tina Pickett |
To: | All House members |
Subject: | Pharmaceutical Cost Transparency Act |
Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) five years ago, the healthcare industry has experienced a dramatic change under the myriad of new requirements in the ACA. At the same time, we have been fortunate to witness transformational change in the availability of life-changing and, in some cases, curative prescription drugs. This change, however, comes at a cost and the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs is an area we need to explore as policy makers. We are barraged with television commercials and advertisements for prescription drugs and an annual cost of $100,000 or more for a single drug is not unusual. We are also witnessing a significant increase in drugs that have been on the market for many years, including household names like insulin. In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation that seeks to provide for Pharmaceutical Cost Transparency. As policy makers, I believe that, at a minimum, we need to provide consumers with information currently not available in terms of why prescription drugs cost so much. At a time when we are all being asked to be more informed health care consumers, this seems to be a logical step for an industry that has become such a major part of our everyday health care. Please join us in supporting this legislation. |
Introduced as HB1042