Anticipating GOP Majority, Republicans Unveil Prescription Drug Agenda for Next Congress

The GOP Healthy Future Taskforce Treatments Subcommittee released a one-page policy agenda focused on lowering drug costs, increasing innovation, and promoting American-made medicines.

The Taskforce report advocated against government-run health care solutions and looked to provide patients with more control over their health care decisions. 

Recommendations include:

• Lowering drug costs by passing the Lower Costs, More Cures Act (H.R. 19), which aims to reduce pharmaceutical costs by classifying insulin treatment as preventive care under high-deductible health plans, creating out-of-pocket caps on drug spending for seniors and people with disabilities, and prohibiting agreements that keep generic drugs off the market, among other provisions;
   
• Speeding up the Food and Drug Administration approval process;
   
• Banning quality-adjusted life years calculations (i.e., calculations used to determine the cost effectiveness of certain health interventions) from coverage and payment decisions; and
   
• Incentivizing domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing and securing access to necessary drug ingredients.

Outlook: In conjunction with the report’s release, Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee reintroduced several pieces of legislation, including the American Innovation Act, the Infectious Disease Therapies Research and Innovation Act, and the American-made Medicine Act.  The measures would seek to achieve the goals outlined by the Taskforce, including securing supply chains and encouraging new treatments in addition to the recommendations listed above.