SE Connecticut News

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  At a Committee hearing yesterday with Secretary Becerra, Rep. Joe Courtney urged his colleagues to join Democrats in lowering costs and tackling inflation by extending drug price savings to more Americans.

“The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced their latest inflation numbers [which] show that inflation dropped to 4 percent, the lowest number in two years… Again, we have more work to do, and one thing that this Congress could do is to follow on the work of the Inflation Reduction Act regarding prescription drugs,” Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02) said, a senior member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

To that end, “HHS, last week, released a list of drugs in the Medicare Part B system for which drug manufacturers increased prices against the law. That means those drug companies have to pay rebates which could mean, for patients and seniors, up to $449 per dose of savings for 43 drugs.

“If we wanted to do something about inflation in this Committee, we could extend the benefits of those price negotiations and rebates to employer-based health plans, which we passed in the House… There’s a golden opportunity for us to extend those savings to working-age Americans through employer-sponsored health plans.”

Watch Rep. Courtney’s exchange with HHS Secretary Becerra here.

Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act last Congress which included new prescription drug savings for seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare. Unfortunately, the Senate failed to adopt the House-passed provision that would extend those cost-savings to Americans with employer-sponsored health care. The Committee on Education and the Workforce has jurisdiction to remedy this problem.

Original source can be found here.