Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is reportedly considering bringing a Big Pharma-backed bill to the Senate floor for a vote that would result in higher healthcare costs for everyday Americans. The so-called Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act (S.127) was written and pushed by special interests. If it passes, it will hurt all of us both in our wallets and in terms of the quality of our healthcare.
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New Hampshire may become the first state to allow the antiparasitic drug ivermectin to be obtained without a prescription. A Republican-sponsored ivermectin bill (HB 1022) passed in the N.H. State House Wednesday on a vote of 183-159 and has been sent to the State Senate for review.
“Ivermectin is available over the counter in 79 countries,” State Representative Jim Kofalt, R-Hillsborough noted during a legislative hearing in January. “And it has a good safety profile.”
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by Evie Fordham President Donald Trump signed a law that ends insurance companies’ pharmacist gag clauses in an effort to lower drug prices Wednesday. “If there’s anything bipartisan it’s lowering drug prices,” Trump said while signing the Patients’ Right To Know Drug Prices Act according to CBS News. Currently, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers use the gag clauses to “forbid pharmacists from proactively telling consumers if their prescription would cost less if they paid for it out-of-pocket rather than using their insurance plan,” according to a press release from Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, the bill’s sponsor. Trump also signed Democratic Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s Know the Lowest Price Act, which “prohibits Medicare drug plans from putting a gag clause on a pharmacy in their contracts,” according to CNN. The Patients’ Right To Know Drug Prices Act would lead to “a slight decrease in federal revenues,” according to the Congressional Budget Office. That decrease could be offset by another provision in the bill, reported Politico. Collins’s bill also targets “pay-for-delay,” a tactic where a brand drug company pays a generic manufacturer to withhold a product that would compete with the brand drug for market share. Closing this loophole could save consumers and taxpayers money, according…
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by Evie Fordham President Donald Trump got behind a bill ending pharmacist gag clauses the Senate is set to vote on Monday afternoon. “Americans deserve to know the lowest drug price at their pharmacy, but ‘gag clauses’ prevent your pharmacist from telling you!” Trump tweeted Monday afternoon about the Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act. “I support legislation that will remove gag clauses and urge the Senate to act.” Americans deserve to know the lowest drug price at their pharmacy, but “gag clauses” prevent your pharmacist from telling you! I support legislation that will remove gag clauses and urge the Senate to act. #AmericanPatientsFirst — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2018 He accompanied the message with the hashtag “#AmericanPatientsFirst.” Currently, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers use the gag clauses to “forbid pharmacists from proactively telling consumers if their prescription would cost less if they paid for it out-of-pocket rather than using their insurance plan,” according to a press release from Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, one of the bill’s authors. The bill would lead to “a slight decrease in federal revenues,” according to the Congressional Budget Office, but that could be offset by another provision in the bill, reported Politico. Collins’s bill also targets…
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