Critical Action on April 19th Battling the Counterproductive HB23-1225, "Extend and Modify the Prescription Drug Affordability Board
Tomorrow the Colorado Senate Health & Human Services Committee will hold its hearing on HB23-1225 (the “Bride of PDAB”).
Colorado consumers, healthcare providers and business organizations are part of a broad coalition opposed to this ill-advised legislation.
They – and we – have already seen how Colorado’s drug price control bureaucracy – the Prescription Drug Affordability Board – has cost taxpayers an average of $80,000 a month to date with zero savings, while Coloradans dependent on life-saving drugs have NO assurances around drug accessibility and the likelihood of access being compromised.
Now, Colorado lawmakers are looking to expand PDAB through HB23-1225. The bill removes the two key guardrails of the original program that legislators agreed to, to ensure that the potential damage of the PDAB program could be mitigated. Instead, HB23-1225 gives PDAB carte blanche to set an Upper Payment Limit for any qualified drug (as opposed to the original twelve drug limit). We should be going in the opposite direction.
Upper Payment Limits set the price that physicians, hospitals, pharmacists and clinics are allowed to pay for certain drugs, regardless of what the drug actually costs. Mandating what providers can pay for a drug is tantamount to making it unavailable if the purchase price exceeds the state-controlled price. This unproven and potentially damaging approach contrasts greatly to the action other states are taking to generate real savings for drug patients.
For just one example of the risks and concerns being created by the PDAB legislation, read through this recent opinion piece by patient advocate Kris Garcia and learn how PDAB could very well endanger access to life-saving drugs. https://www.coloradopolitics.
CHAIN opposes HB-1225 and is continuing to educate lawmakers about the scores of unanswered questions on how this bill may compromise patient access to life-saving drugs and how we can be assured that more taxpayer dollars aren’t squandered in delivering ZERO savings for Colorado patients.
PLEASE JOIN WITH US IN OPPOSING HB23-1225, “The Bride of PDAB”. Contact your legislators and link up with our Twitter stream with #ZeroSavingsCO.