More to do: proposal excludes negotiations to lower drug prices and paid family medical leave
WASHINGTON — In response to the deal reached on the Build Back Better plan, Health Care for America Now Executive Director Margarida Jorge released the following statement:
“The Build Back Better framework makes significant progress to expand access to affordable health care for millions of Americans, including millions of people who have waited a decade for Medicaid coverage, and takes meaningful steps to make our tax system fairer. Closing the Medicaid coverage gap, extending premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act health insurance plans and expanding Medicare coverage for hearing will ensure millions more Americans will have access to the health care they need without having to delay care or go deep into debt.
Nor do these proposals add to national debt, because this framework will finally require the wealthiest Americans and corporations to pay more taxes to support the new investments and build a more prosperous economy for all of us. This plan makes our tax code more fair by making billionaires who have exponentially increased their wealth during the pandemic pay their fair share, just like working families do, and ensuring no corporation gets away with making massive profits and paying no taxes.
But there’s still more work to do: dropping Medicare price negotiations from the package is a step backward in making medicines affordable for the millions who need them. Lawmakers’ failure to deliver on this promise is a victory for Pharma, which has spent months buying off a handful of Democrats and scaring the public with misleading ads and information.
To build back better, Congress must amend this package to include prescription drug reform that requires robust negotiations and limits Pharma’s monopoly power to price gouge patients. We urge Democrats to deliver on their longtime promise to make medicines affordable and make Build Back Better truly historic.”
