Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer this amendment sponsored today by my friend and neighbor, Ms. Scanlon from Pennsylvania. This commonsense amendment has two parts. First, it would require pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, to pass discounts on drugs through to State Medicaid programs. PBMs are an important part of our drug pricing system, but Republicans and Democrats alike agree on the need for PBM reform. This provision is a feature of the Senate's bipartisan drug pricing bill. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Pennsylvania taxpayers paid $2.86 billion to PBMs for Medicaid enrollees in 2017. That is a 100 percent increase over 4 years. Under current law, PBMs can bill Medicaid one price for a drug, reimburse the pharmacy at a lower price, and profit, as a result, millions from the difference. This amendment would stop that practice from Medicaid plans and simply require PBMs to pass along any discounts they get from pharmaceutical companies to the State's Medicaid program. The amendment also requires pharmacies to participate in the CMS survey of acquisition costs for drugs so that States, consumers, and lawmakers alike all can have greater transparency into what these prescription drugs should cost. Again, this is a feature of the Republican drug pricing proposals included in Mr. Walden's proposal, and it is all about increasing transparency into costs, especially PBM pricing.…”