乔·拜登总统吹捧了美国宪法中的条款重建更好的行为旨在降低处方药费用周一，尽管他希望这将是对他的总统任期至关重要的里程碑式的立法，但美国参议院陷入僵局。
拜登在白宫东厅发表讲话时说:“即使你认为这不会影响你，但它确实会影响你。“每个人口袋里的钱都变少了，因为高昂的药费让每个人的医疗保险都变得更贵。几乎每个美国学位都同意的事情并不多——可以达成一致。但我认为可以有把握地说，我们所有人，我们所有人，无论我们的背景、年龄、居住地点，都可以同意处方药在这个国家贵得离谱。”
“不需要这样，”他说。
如果获得通过，《重建更好法案》将对药价上涨速度快于通货膨胀的制药公司实施税收惩罚，对医疗保险接受者必须为某些处方支付的金额设定上限，允许政府就医疗保险药品价格进行谈判，并降低所有美国人的胰岛素价格。
拜登说，药品价格上涨的“最令人震惊”的例子之一是胰岛素的成本，在过去的十年里，胰岛素的成本每年增长15%或更多，尽管这种至关重要的药物是在100年前发明的，而且“只需要几美元就能制造出来”。拜登指出，一个月胰岛素供应量的平均标价约为375美元，但一些美国人因处方而每月支付高达1000美元。
“这些价格上涨是关于公司寻求利润最大化，没有人为病人挺身而出。没有人有能力做些什么。够了。够了。到目前为止，没有人追究制造商的责任，”他说。
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乔·拜登总统就“重建更美好的立法”的新规则发表讲话..
根据美国糖尿病协会的数据，受欢迎的规定是将医疗保险领取者和拥有私人健康保险的人的胰岛素费用限制在每月35美元，这一规定意义重大，因为每10个美国人中就有一个人患有糖尿病疾病控制和预防中心，大约三分之一的成年人有糖尿病前期。
拜登强调:“濒临死亡和欣欣向荣的区别在于一种药物的成本。
为此，拜登在发表讲话前会见了两名女性，她们患有糖尿病，难以支付胰岛素，过去被迫定量给药，她们告诉他。
“我早就说过，在这个国家，医疗保健应该是一项权利，而不是特权。我今天遇到的女人和数百万像她们一样的人是原因，”拜登说。“对这些人来说，一种药物的成本就是希望和恐惧、生与死、尊严和依赖之间的区别。”
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白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基在每日新闻发布会上与记者交谈...
“想象一下，如果你是这个国家大约20万患有1型糖尿病的年轻人的父母之一，”拜登继续说道。“想象一下，如果你买不起他们的胰岛素。这不仅是对孩子生命的威胁，也剥夺了你的尊严。”
该法案还将允许卫生和公众服务部部长就2025年生效的多达10种医疗保险药物和2028年开始生效的多达20种药物的价格进行谈判，以努力降低美国人使用最多的药物的成本。根据凯撒家庭基金会的数据，近四分之一的美国人难以负担处方药投票。
白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基在周一的简报会上说:“近30%服用处方药的美国人跳过了一剂。“总统的《重建更美好生活法案》将为难以支付处方药费用的美国人提供救济，这是有充分理由的。美国人为处方药支付的价格是世界上最高的，通常是其他发达国家公民的两到三倍。”
除了对药企以高于通胀的速度提高药品价格进行处罚之外，目前形式的法案还将重新设计医疗保险的D部分药品计划，在2024年前增加医药药品自付费用上限2000美元。
拜登在下午的讲话中说:“这不是党派问题。“糖尿病、老年痴呆症、癌症，以及其他很多疾病，他们不在乎你是民主党人还是共和党人。这不是关于你的亲人是否能负担得起你需要的处方药，所以我们需要国会完成这项工作，团结起来，改变人们的生活。”
制药公司表示，虽然他们同意降低处方药价格的想法，特别是针对老年人的，但该提议将减少新药和研究的获得，并可能抑制市场上新药的竞争。
根据国会预算办公室的说法，重建得更好措施总共将为国家节省大约2970亿美元，其中包括大约790亿美元允许医疗保险谈判药品价格。
参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默在一份声明中明确表示“亲爱的同事”来信周一，他希望“在圣诞节前”通过这项立法，但即使民主党在两院都以微弱多数获得通过——以及随后有能力通过和解程序通过拜登的优先事项——两位温和派民主党人仍然没有加入。
结束讲话后离开房间，拜登回答了一个关于在圣诞节前通过该法案的大声提问。
“尽可能早地得到它，”他说。“不管花多长时间，我都想把它做完。”
但关键的民主党参议员西弗吉尼亚州的乔·曼钦(Joe Manchin)和亚利桑那州的基尔斯顿·西内马(Kyrsten Sinema)尚未承诺投票支持目前形式的立法，他们正在推动在投票前进行几项修订。
众议院民主党人通过了他们的版本上个月扩大国家社会安全网的1.75万亿美元法案。众议院议长南希·佩洛西表示，他们预计参议院将对该立法进行修改，因此在获得拜登的签名之前，该立法将不得不返回众议院进行另一次投票。
Biden touts provisions to lower cost of prescription drugs in Build Back Better Act
President Joe Biden touted provisions in theBuild Back Better Actaimed to lower thecost of prescription drugson Monday while what he hopes will be landmark legislation vital to his presidency is stalled U.S. Senate.
"Even if you think this doesn't affect you, it does," Biden said in remarks from the White House East Room. "Everyone has less money in their pockets because high drug costs make health insurance more expensive for everyone. There aren't a lot of things that almost every American degree agree -- can agree on. But I think it's safe to say that all of us, all of us, whatever our background, our age, where we live, we can agree that prescription drugs are outrageously expensive in this country."
"It doesn't need to be that way," he said.
If passed, the Build Back Better Act would impose a tax penalty on drug companies that raise medication prices faster than inflation, put a cap on how much Medicare recipients have to pay for some prescriptions, allow the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices and lower insulin prices for all Americans.
Biden said one of the "most egregious" examples of rising drug prices is seen with the cost of insulin -- which has increased by 15% or more each year for the past decade although the vital drug was invented 100 years ago and cost "just a couple bucks to make." The average sticker price for one month's supply of insulin is about $375, Biden noted, but some Americans pay as high as $1,000 a month because of their prescriptions.
"These price increases are about companies looking to maximize profits, and nobody standing up for the patients. Nobody with the power to do something about it. It is enough. Enough. Nobody has held the manufacturers accountable until now," he said.
The popular provision to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for both Medicare recipients and those with private health insurance would be significant as just over one in 10 Americans have diabetes, according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, and approximately one in three adults have prediabetes.
"The difference between nearly dying and thriving is the cost of one drug," Biden emphasized.
To that end, Biden met with two women before his remarks who suffer from diabetes and have struggled to pay for insulin, forced to ration doses in the past, they told him.
"I've long said health care should be a right not a privilege in this country. And the women I've met with today and millions like them are the reason why," Biden said. "People for whom the cost of one drug is the difference between hope and fear, life and death, and dignity and dependence."
"Imagine if you're a parent one of the roughly 200,000 young people in this country that suffer from Type 1 diabetes," Biden continued. "Imagine if you can't afford their insulin. It is not only a risk to your child's life, it deprives of you your dignity."
The bill would also allow the Health and Human Services secretary to negotiate the prices of up to 10 Medicare drugs to take effect in 2025 and up to 20 medications starting in 2028, in an effort to lower the cost of drugs Americans use the most. It comes as nearly one in four Americans struggle to afford prescription drugs, according to a Kaiser Family Foundationpoll.
"Nearly 30% of Americans who take prescription drugs have skipped a dose," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at Monday's briefing. "The president's Build Back Better Act will provide relief to Americans struggling to pay for their prescription drugs, and for good reason. Americans pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, often two to three times as much as citizens from other developed countries."
In addition to imposing penalties on drug companies that increase their prices on medications faster than inflation, the bill in its current form would also redesign Medicare's Part D drug plans by adding an out-of-pocket spending cap of $2,000 by 2024 on pharmaceutical medications.
"This is not a partisan issue," Biden said in afternoon remarks. "Diabetes, Alzheimer's, cancer, so many other diseases, they don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican. It's not about whether or not your loved ones can afford a prescription drug you need, so we need Congress to finish the job to come together and make a difference in people's lives."
Drug companies say while they agree with the idea of lowering prescription drugs particularly for seniors, the proposal would reduce access to new medicines and research and could dampen competition into new drugs on the marketplace.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Build Back Bettermeasuresaltogether would save the country around $297 billion, including about $79 billion from allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made clear in a"Dear Colleague" letteron Monday he wants to pass the legislation "before Christmas," but even with Democrats holding a slim majority in both chambers -- and the subsequent ability to pass the priority of Biden's through the reconciliation process -- two moderate Democrats are still not on board.
Leaving the room after concluding his remarks, Biden responded to one shouted question about passing the bill by Christmas.
"As early as we can get it," he said. "I want to get it done no matter how long it takes."
But key Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have not committed to voting for the legislation in its current form and are pushing for several revisions before a vote.
House Democratspassed their versionof the $1.75 trillion bill to expand the nation's social safety net last month. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said they expect changes to the legislation in the Senate, so it will have to go back to the House for another vote before receiving Biden's signature.
