Making the best decision about which medicines to take should be a decision between patients and their doctors, not unelected bureaucrats. Price-setting boards, such as the prescription drug affordability board (PDAB) being proposed in Virginia, ignore this principle and threaten access to life-saving medicines.
Here’s why:
- It puts bureaucracy over providers: PDABs allow unelected bureaucrats to determine the cost of medicines. This puts the state government between doctors and their patients and risks limiting the treatments patients can access.
- It’s ineffective and costly: States with price-setting boards have spent millions creating their PDABs without seeing savings for patients yet. For example, the Maryland PDAB has cost millions. Established in 2019, the PDAB has not saved a single patient a dime on their medications and has yet to show any evidence of lowering patient costs.
- It’s not a real solution to rising costs: Price setting doesn’t address the root cause of high drug costs—insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). They control what patients pay at the pharmacy, often costs for patients and limited access to medications, no matter how prices are set.
- It builds on the IRA’s failed promise: The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is proof that government price-setting doesn’t work. These price controls are threatening seniors’ access to medicines they need. In fact, 78% of insurers say they will limit therapeutic options available to Medicare Part D enrollees. This will make it harder for patients to get the medicines they need when they need them.
Patient groups across the country have publicly shared their concern that PDABs may reduce access to medicines. And they’ve been joined by voices across the supply chain including hospitals, insurers, and doctors. These voices expose real and unfortunate potential consequences to government price-setting. Ask patients in Colorado suffering from Cystic Fibrosis who had their vital access to medicines threatened by the PDAB.
The focus should be on real reform, not bureaucratic overreach. Instead of price-setting boards, we need solutions that address systemic issues with insurers and PBMs and improve access to life-saving medicines.
Stami Turk
Stami Williams is Director of State Public Affairs where she oversees earned and paid media efforts in several regions across the country. Stami received her M.P.S. from George Washington University, where she remains an adjunct professor with undergraduate studies at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
Stami Turk
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