Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the HELP Copays Act. Too many patients are seeing large copays at the pharmacy counter because of pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM, accumulator programs. PBMs are the middlemen in the distribution chain between drug manufacturers and pharmacies and were originally designed to help negotiate with manufacturers to lower costs for patients. Unfortunately, we are seeing patient assistance programs being abused by PBMs. Patients often receive drug coupons from manufacturers for high-cost medicines to reduce their out-of-pocket spending. However, PBMs, who are also the insurer in many cases, do not allow the coupon to apply toward the patient's deductible. This is not the proper role of insurance. Health benefits should be serving the patients, not their shareholders at the expense of patients. The HELP Copays Act would put an end to these abusive practices and improve patient access and affordability by requiring insurance plans to apply patient assistance toward their copay. There simply can't be a discussion on lowering healthcare costs for patients without addressing the role of middlemen. Banning the use of copay accumulators is a readymade policy to do just that. ____________________”