H.R. 3 and the Deadlock of Prescription Drug Cost Legislation

An insulin syringe. Photo by Marco Verch.

As a type 1 diabetic, I have an intimate understanding of the absurdity of drug costs. Without insurance, the insulin which I depend on to survive would cost me $13,920 a year–almost $40 a day. I know first-hand how agonizing the cost of prescription drugs can be and I see no solution on the horizon without government intervention. Legislators must provide relief to Americans struggling with high drug costs—and soon. 

As I read through H.R. 3, the Democratic proposal to end exorbitant drug pricing schemes, I felt as if we had found an answer. The proposal would end the pharmaceutical industries’ price gouging by requiring the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to negotiate maximum drug prices with manufacturers, improving the lives of millions of Americans.

 However, within hours of the bill’s announcement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) pronounced that the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the Senate. With three words, Leader McConnell destroyed the dream that I, and millions of other Americans, had for fair drug pricing. Once again, the scourge of partisanship had obliterated a compassionate and effective solution, leaving Americans to suffer in the wake of unconscionably high drug costs.

 For a solution to be impactful, our politicians must actually enact it. While H.R. 3 would certainly generate meaningful change, it does nothing sitting in LeaderMcConnell’s legislative graveyard. To solve this issue, Democrats must be willing to negotiate a bipartisan solution.

 If a bipartisan drug pricing bill were to be signed into law, it would undoubtedly be seen as a win for President Trump. However, if Democrats plan to claim the moral high ground against President Trump next fall, we must prove we are willing to put the American people before our own partisan interests. While partisan gridlock jams the halls of the Capitol, prescription drug prices are increasing.

 Within a decade, Eli Lilly and Company, a major supplier of insulin across the world, has raised the price of a single vial of insulin from $93 to nearly $290, with no justifiable explanation for this cost increase. Insulin, unlike other evolving treatments, has been essentially the same drug for 100 years. Loose regulation and a lack of government intervention allow drug companies, such as Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, to keep raising prices. These companies are incentivized to raise the price of insulin to make money for their shareholders. People are willing to pay anything for insulin when it is a matter of life and death, but some people simply cannot afford to comply with these price hikes, leading to deadly consequences.  

 The outrageously high price of insulin is forcing some diabetics to ration their medication. In 2018, Meaghan Carter, a trained nurse, and a diabetic of 18 years died from insulin rationing while between jobs. A year earlier, a Houston man, Shane Patrick Boyle, died after a GoFundMe that he started to help pay for his medication fell $50 short. These cases are only two of countless examples of diabetics killed by the greed of the pharmaceutical industry.

Insulin is hardly the only drug to undergo such drastic price increases. A May 2019 study found that the 49 top-selling brand-name drugs underwent a median cost increase of 76% between January 2012 and December 2017. High drug costs are a national crisis, but this crisis is solvable. There are enough votes to pass meaningful reform; Democrats and Republicans alike support measures to reduce drug prices.

 Last summer, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced a bipartisan proposal that would significantly diminish the ability of pharmaceutical companies to raise prices. This legislation would limit the increases in Medicare’s prescription drug benefit to the rate of inflation, keeping drug costs down. The proposal enjoys widespread support; even President Trump endorsed the bill in his State of the Union speech and a number of senators from both sides of the aisle are backing the act.

 Yet, party leaders remain hesitant to endorse such a proposal. Neither Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) nor Majority Leader McConnell have backed the Grassley-Wyden bill, both choosing instead to recede to their partisan corners. The New York Times has reported that Leader McConnell is personally opposed to the idea of price controls, while Minority Leader Schumer has stated publicly that Democrats are unwilling to settle for anything less than H.R. 3. 

 Unfortunately, politics necessitates settling. It always has. While I wholeheartedly endorse H.R. 3 and the radical changes it would produce, I am also realistic. Any relief on drug pricing for Americans, no matter how small, is a step in the right direction. 

 It is time for the Democrats in both the House and Senate to put aside messaging and optics and get behind a bipartisan drug bill. Without the cover to criticize the legislation as too “radical” or “socialist,” Republicans will be forced to pass the bill into law. By supporting a bipartisan solution, Democrats will have improved the quality of life for millions of Americans and proved that they are willing to put their duty to the American people above their hatred for President Trump. If Leader McConnell still decides to kill the bill, at least Democrats will have definitive proof that Republicans do not support efforts to curtail drug pricing, giving them a key talking point for the 2020 election. 

 To be clear, Leader McConnell’s efforts to block all drug pricing legislation are abhorrent. His actions, along with those of Republicans in the Senate and House alike, are a fundamental betrayal of the American people. But how are we as a party to claim we are any better if we are unwilling even to attempt bipartisan action? If we let our political interests cloud our vision and distort our moral clarity, we are no better than the very party we are so ardently striving to defeat. We cannot revert to our partisan ways while people’s lives are at risk. 

Ian Springer is a staff writer at CPR and a freshman at Columbia College studying Classics and Economics. He is from Chevy Chase, Maryland.