Ever since her signature socialist price control scheme, H.R. 3, failed with a bipartisan vote in the Energy and Commerce Committee, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s been working to revive it in the tax and spending spree. Despite many rewrites behind closed doors, her price controls will still lead to fewer cures, less innovation, and no hope.
Don’t miss Energy and Commerce Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers share why the National Council on Disability is raising the alarm for how this socialist price control scheme could discriminate against people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. ↓
Excerpts and highlights from her prepared remarks:
“I sent an urgent request to Secretary Becerra to brief us on the drastically changed, new drug pricing provisions in the tax and spending spree before the Democrats’ self-imposed deadline of this week.
“This new text was unveiled on November 4th.
“It was one of Speaker Pelosi’s many rewrites to revive H.R.3, which failed with a bipartisan vote in this committee because it would lead to fewer cures, less innovation, and no hope.
“Today-just days before a potential vote-we need answers.
“We are concerned about giving the Secretary the discretion to set the minimum price for negotiation of a drug at $0, meaning there is no price floor.
“How does this work?
“How many generic drugs and biosimilars will fail to come to market over the next 10, 20, 50 years if this becomes law?
“We also don’t have certainty from the Biden administration that this would not discriminate against people with disabilities and chronic illnesses.
“That’s why the National Council on Disability is asking for a clear, unquestionable ban on QALYs, which would give the government power over your life and death.
“As one dad told me in a roundtable about the dangers of socialized medicine, QALYs discriminate against the weakest and most vulnerable.
“The cold, dehumanizing calculations of QALYs leave no room for compassion.
“He predicted his daughter Megan-who needs a ventilator and a wheelchair-wouldn’t meet the government’s definition for a quality life.
“Under QALYs, her life would be deemed worthless.
“It wouldn’t measure how she has defied all odds, graduated from Notre Dame, or how she is today a social worker making a difference in other people’s lives.
“It’s our duty-as duly-elected members of Energy and Commerce-to fully understand these drug pricing provisions and what it would mean for people like Megan.
“Families who need hope, who believe in the promise of American innovation, deserve full transparency.
“Instead of this partisan, multi-trillion tax and spending spree, we should be working together on bipartisan solutions like in H.R. 19, the Lower Costs, More Cures Act.
“A number of these bipartisan provisions have already been signed into law.
“Let’s build on this work and deliver hope to people who need it most."
