The top idea for lowering drug prices put forward Wednesday by a task force may not even be debated in the Minnesota Senate this year.
State Sen. Scott Jensen, R-Chaska, says his bill to create a new commission to probe drug price increases and intervene when they are too high hasn’t been given a hearing by Republican leaders.
“For the life of me, I cannot understand why not to have a hearing on that,” said Jensen, a physician who isn’t seeking a second term.
The DFL-led House advanced legislation Wednesday similar to Jensen’s bill and the GOP-controlled Senate is debating other ideas to help lower drug prices.
Jensen has promised to keep pushing to get his in front of Senate colleagues. “I can be persistent,” he said.
Developing the commission is a key priority of the task force Jensen co-chaired that spent the past year digging into why drug prices are so high and what can be done to make medicine more affordable. Attorney General Keith Ellison created the group and it released a nearly 100-page report Wednesday.
“Too many Minnesotans have told me they have the choice of affording their lives and affording to live,” Ellison said.
The task force included lawmakers from both political parties, public health officials and advocates for affordable medicine.
Among the task force findings are that drug companies work to keep the price-setting process mysterious. They take advantage of patents, exclusivity rules and other anti-competitive practices to charge as much as possible.
To fix this, the task force recommends:
- A new commission to probe drug prices and intervene when they are unreasonable, paired with tougher laws to prevent price gouging, consumer fraud and kickbacks.
- Allowing the state to import essential medicines like insulin and using its purchasing power to lower the prices of other drugs.
- New regulations and transparency of the pharmaceutical supply chain to ensure consumers pay fair prices and benefit from any rebates and discounts.
Ellison said the report lays bare how the secretiveness surrounding drug pricing works to the advantage of pharmaceutical companies.
“Very few people understand how this works. How could they? It is not designed for you to understand it,” Ellison said. “In fact, the opacity and confusing nature of it is how price hikes are embedded within it.”
Pharmaceutical companies have largely rejected criticisms that their industry is solely to blame for the rising cost of health care. They’ve pointed to providers, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers as other players driving up costs.
Drug makers also routinely remind lawmakers they spend billions of dollars on drug development.
Stephen Schondelmeyer, a University of Minnesota professor who researchers the pharmaceutical industry, said all the money spent on research and development will mean little if patients cannot pay the high cost of new drugs.
“We need more drugs that are affordable, not more drugs we cannot afford,” Schondelmeyer said.
Most of the task force recommendations are a long shot at becoming law in Minnesota’s divided Legislature. But members of the group pointed out that some of the things don’t need legislative approval to move forward.
Those include setting strict oversight rules under legislation approved last year that regulates pharmacy benefit managers. These so-called PBMs work with insurers to set the drugs available under insurance plans and how much they cost.
One of the biggest weapons is the legal system, Ellison said. Minnesota is already suing insulin and opioid makers and Ellison plans to continue to file lawsuits when drug companies act badly.