Senator Murray: “Every day I wake up and try to think about how I can make life better for people in Washington state. And one of my top priorities right now is doing everything I can to lower the cost of prescription drugs.”
(Seattle, WA) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, hosted a virtual roundtable with the AARP Washington state office on the urgent need to lower the cost of prescription drugs. During the roundtable, Senator Murray outlined her efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs and answered questions from AARP Washington members. A recording of the roundtable is available here.
“Every day, there are people in this country, probably some of the AARP members who watched this live-stream, wondering if they would be better off rationing their prescription and risking their lives just to make ends meet. I refuse to just throw my hands in the air and accept that as our reality,” said Senator Murray. “Every day I wake up and try to think about how I can make life better for people in Washington state. And one of my top priorities right now is doing everything I can to lower the cost of prescription drugs.”
In response to a question from, Zelda Foxall, about rising drug prices Senator Murray said, “Life-saving medicine doesn’t save any lives if people can’t afford it, to me that’s sort of the guiding principle and my motivation everyday. We are again pushing for meaningful steps to bring down drug costs and crackdown on pharmaceutical companies that are driving these prices up.”
Candace Idso asked Senator Murray about helping people who need specialty drugs like multiple sclerosis. “You can drive the price down by buying it in bulk, similar thing with how we would negotiate to lower drug prices. Medicare is one of the biggest drug purchasers in the nation, and we want to let it use its power here to force drug companies to the table and negotiate lower prices for the highest cost drugs,” said Senator Murray.
Senator Murray is fighting to pass proposals that would lower costs for families by giving Medicare the power to negotiate for lower drug prices, cracking down on outrageous price increases, and capping seniors’ out-of-pocket drug costs. Additionally, The Affordable Insulin Now Act, introduced by Senator Warnock and supported by Senator Murray, would cap the cost of insulin at $35 per month permanently.
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