Andre Carson: “Last November, the American people elected us to this body because of the urgent need to shore up our health care system…”

“Last November, the American people elected us to this body because of the urgent need to shore up our health care system and bring down the cost of prescription drugs. Today, we are making good on that promise to the country by passing another critically-important piece of legislation. H.R. 987, the Strengthening Health Care and Prescription Drugs Act helps protect the Affordable Care Act from the sabotage of the Trump Administration. In particular, this bill bans the use of ``junk'' health care plans that harm people with pre-existing conditions; it also helps provide states with more resources to increase health care coverage. Second, this legislation helps increase generic prescription drug competition which will help bring down prices for patients. In particular, this legislation includes a bill that I cosponsored that makes it illegal for prescription drug manufacturers to use a practice called ``pay-for-delay.'' This anti-competitive practice delays generic manufacturers from bringing cheaper drugs to market. This bill will prohibit this practice and help increase drug competition. This bill will not solve every problem ailing our health care system, nor will it immediately fix our prescription drug prices problems. But the American people deserve these needed reforms without delay. This bill's passage today will help us build additional policies to shore up our health care system and further bring down the cost of prescription drugs.…”