Ed Gainey: Fight to lower prescription drug prices continues
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Over the past year and a half, not only have Pennsylvanians had to struggle with the everyday stress of living and working during a global pandemic, they’ve also had to worry about the ever-increasing price of their prescription drugs.
As the covid-19 pandemic ravaged Pennsylvania, predatory drug companies took the opportunity to pump up the price of their prescription drugs and swell their profits. GoodRx found that in January of 2021 alone, drug companies ratcheted up the cost of a whopping 832 prescription drugs by an average of 4.5%.
However, the rising cost of prescription drugs isn’t just another symptom of the covid-19 pandemic: Pharmaceutical firms have been hiking their prices at an average rate of 2.9% per year, double the rate of inflation, since 2006.
Drug giants aren’t just taking money from everyday Pennsylvanians and putting it into their own pockets. These underhanded tactics have put a serious strain on our health care system. In 2020, one in five Pennsylvania residents admitted to trying to stretch their prescriptions by cutting pills or skipping medications. People simply aren’t getting the quality of care they need, which inevitably leads to worse health outcomes for those financially struggling to fill their prescriptions.
This isn’t how health care should work in the United States. However, while it’s one thing to identify price-gouging drug companies as a key flaw in our health care system, it has proven extremely difficult to tackle the pharmaceutical industry and deliver relief to Pennsylvanians looking for quality care at a reasonable price.
State legislators have tried to propose solutions in the past, like a 2020 drug pricing transparency bill, but ultimately, those efforts have gained little traction and fizzled out.
Fortunately, there are still elected officials out there willing to take the fight to the pharmaceutical industry in Washington. Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey has made it clear that drug pricing reform is a chief priority for him in D.C. In the past, Casey supported a variety of commonsense reforms, such as allowing Medicare the ability to negotiate, that would dramatically lower the cost of drugs.
Now, Casey has the chance to score a big win for his constituents here in Pennsylvania. As a key member of the Senate Finance Committee, he’s working to find the most effective cost-saving measures to lower the cost of drugs for every American. As Pennsylvanians, we should support Casey’s fight to lower the cost of drugs for everyone here in the Keystone State and urge him to continue to prioritize this issue.
Ed Gainey is Pittsburgh’s mayor-elect.