ICYMI: Senator Murray Helps Pass Historic Bill to Lower Prescription Drug Costs
ICYMI: Senator Murray Hosts Roundtable on Historic Measures to Lower Drug Prices
Washington DC – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee, joined U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Peter Welch (D-VT) in introducing legislation to strengthen Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices and lower prescription drug costs for consumers. The Strengthening Medicare and Reducing Taxpayer (SMART) Prices Act would give the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) additional authority to negotiate for Medicare Part D—building on provisions in the Ley de Reducción de la Inflación Senator Murray helped pass that empowered Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices for the first time ever.
“Empowering Medicare to force big pharmaceutical companies to the table to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for America’s 55 million seniors is a no-brainer—it saves seniors and our government money, and is lifechanging for people who rely on prescription medications every day,” dijo el senador Murray. “I’m proud Democrats gave Medicare the power it needed to negotiate drug prices for the first time ever in the Ley de Reducción de la Inflación, which will lower prescription drug costs for 2.5 million Washington seniors. Now, we’ve got to build on this progress and make more vital prescription medications more affordable, and even sooner—and that’s exactly what the SMART Prices Act will do.”
The SMART Prices Act would allow prescription drugs and biologics to be eligible for negotiation five years after approval by the Food and Drug Administration and increase the overall amount by which Medicare can lower prices through negotiation. The legislation would also lower Medicare Part B drug prices through negotiation two years earlier than under current law and increase the overall number of drugs that HHS can negotiate starting in 2026.
The legislation is endorsed by the Center for American Progress, Families USA, Lower Drug Prices Now, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Patients For Affordable Drugs, Protect Our Care, and Public Citizen.
The SMART Prices Act is also cosponsored by U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Angus King (I-ME), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Tina Smith (D-MN), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
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