This past week, several of my colleagues introduced a series of bills called the Making Health Care Work for Maine package. These bills continue our work to support Mainers by reducing over-the-top health care costs and prescription drug prices, as well as working to provide more transparency on why drugs cost what they do.

Susan Deschambault Courtesy photo

I’ve talked about how seriously I take access to affordable health care in a previous column discussing the COVID-19 Patient Bill of Rights. Health care is a human right. We should all be able to get the care we need in a timely manner, without worrying about how to afford it. The reality is, however, that people continue to go into debt to afford a life-saving treatment, or skip doses of their medication because they simply have no way to pay for it.

To make matters worse, during the pandemic, pharmaceutical companies continued to raise drug prices, and they didn’t stop there. Big Pharma charged more for 118 medications that medical professionals use to treat patients with chronic health conditions. Devastatingly, 75 percent of those medications treat patients who are at a higher risk for COVID-19.

We know tackling the incredibly high costs of health care is not a one-and-done issue. So many families can’t afford the medicine or care they need on a regular basis. The pandemic exposed even bigger problems with our health care system, but we know that these issues and concerns have existed well before COVID-19.

As state legislators, we want to try to do everything we can on the state level to make health care work for Maine. I’ve picked out a few of the bills in the Making Health Care Work for Maine package to highlight:

  • LD 120, “An Act to Lower Health Care Costs through the Establishment of the Office of Affordable Health Care,” sponsored by Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Allagash), will take a bird’s-eye view as to why health care costs are so high, with the ultimate goal of finding ways to reduce the amount Mainers pay for health care.
  • LD 1117, “An Act To Prevent Excessive Prices for Prescription Drugs,” also sponsored by Jackson, is a bill to stop the price gouging of prescription drugs in Maine. Prescription drug companies do not need to jack up the prices on generic medication or off-patent drugs that have been on the market for years. The way this would work is if the price increase of a certain prescription drug passes the normal amount, Maine’s attorney general has the authority to levy a fine on the prescription drug company and order them to stop the over-the-top increase.
  • In line with preventing excessive price increases on prescription drugs is LD 675, “An Act To Protect Maine Consumers from Unsupported Price Increases on Prescription Medicines by Creating an Independent Review Process,” sponsored by Sen. Ned Claxton (D-Auburn), who is a retired family doctor. The bill would have prescription drug companies prove their reasoning behind increasing the prices for specific drugs, or else risk a fine.

If you have any questions about these bills or the Making Health Care Work for Maine package overall, contact me at 207- 287-1515 or Susan.Deschambault@legislature.maine.gov.

State Senator Susan Deschambault represents Senate District 32, Alfred, Arundel, Biddeford, Dayton, Kennebunkport and Lyman.

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