Golden, Peters Lead Group Urging Biden to Prevent Rise in Prescription Drug Costs, Lower the Deficit

WASHINGTON — Congressmen Jared Golden (ME-02) and Scott Peters (CA-52) led a group of nine House members today to send a letter urging the Biden Administration to permanently repeal a 2019 drug rebate rule. In addition to protecting Americans from rising health care costs, permanent repeal of the rule would save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. The rule was delayed in the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act, but is set to be implemented in 2032.

“The original Inflation Reduction Act would have permanently prohibited implementation of the Rule Relating to Eliminating the Anti-Kick-Back Statute Safe Harbor Protection for Prescription Drug Rebates,” the lawmakers wrote. “This provision would have saved $122 billion through 2031 and, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, more than $500 billion over two decades.”

The lawmakers continue, “While delaying implementation of the rule provides significant savings, long-term deficit reduction is substantially reduced absent full repeal. Your administration has the authority to fix this problem and achieve the full amount of long-term deficit reduction intended in the Inflation Reduction Act.”

Although the original rule was intended to decrease drug costs by eliminating rebates negotiated between drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) or health plan sponsors in Medicare, a report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services showed that the rule instead would raise drug premiums for seniors by 19 percent. 

Since being elected to Congress, Golden has prioritized common-sense solutions that seek to lower costs for hard-working Americans without adding to our national debt. This year, he voted to pass the Inflation Reduction Act and was recognized by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan organization of leading budget policy experts, for his role in bringing about the legislation. Last year, Golden pushed House leadership to oppose efforts to add a State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction that would overwhelmingly benefit wealthy Americans to reconciliation legislation. Golden also pushed leadership to address the half-measures and budget gimmicks in the Build Back Better Act. Between his votes on the American Rescue Plan and the Build Back Better Act, Golden has voted against adding a combined $2.2 trillion dollars to the deficit.  

Signing onto Rep. Golden and Rep. Peters’ letter was Reps. Kathleen Rice (NY-04), Kurt Schrader (OR-05), Earl Blumenauer (OR-03), Carolyn Bourdeaux (GA-07), Jimmy Panetta (CA-20), Stephanie Murphy (FL-07), and Chris Pappas (NH-01). 

The letter can be found here. 

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