“We are saying with a clear voice today that patients should be able to talk with their pharmacists. Pharmacists should be able to talk with their patients to know if they’re paying the lowest price for their medication.”
Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks.
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate in support of the “Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act” (S. 2554). The bipartisan legislation will make it easier for patients to know if they’re paying the lowest price for their prescription medication. S. 2554 passed the Senate today by a vote of 98 to 2.
Barrasso, who was an original cosponsor of S. 2554 when it was introduced in March 2018, spoke on the Senate floor today in support of the legislation.
Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:
“I come also to speak on this important piece of legislation and in favor of this important piece of legislation.
“I just visited with Senator Collins who knows as so many members of this body that I practiced medicine for a long time before coming to the United States Senate. I took care of a lot of Wyoming families as a practicing physician.
“As a doctor, I often prescribed medication to help my patients fight disease and to improve their quality of life.
“So I know the importance of prescription medication.
“I also know the important role that pharmacists play in the lives of their patients as well because the same patient that I’m taking care of, the pharmacist is also caring for.
“And in so many ways, the pharmacist has to be able to speak freely to their patients—about information about their medication.
“Pharmacists provide vital, important roles to the patients on a daily basis and it happens all around the country.
“So they need to be able to speak freely about those things, and they need to be able to speak freely about the things that can save a patient’s life, but also things that can save a patient money.
“And that’s what this piece of legislation is about.
“Because I know that many patients fail to take the medications that their doctor might prescribe because of the cost involved, the expense of the medicine.
“That’s why I’m so glad to see President Trump make it a priority to find ways to lower the costs that people pay for their medicine.
“The administration actually put out a blueprint for ways we could address drug costs.
“Part of the plan was to eliminate the so-called pharmacy gag clauses.
“These gag clauses are clauses that are sometimes included in contracts—not between the patient and the pharmacist—contracts between a drug company and an insurance company. This needs to be stopped.
“A gag clause says that if a patient brings a prescription to a drug store to be filled, the pharmacist cannot talk about the cash price of the drug.
“It’s not allowed. It’s wrong.
“Maybe someone has an insurance plan where their co-pay for medication is $10. So for the prescription they’re filling, the drug would actually only cost them $5 to fill if they paid in cash.
“But, under these gag clauses, the pharmacist is not allowed to say anything about it.
“Right now, the pharmacist can’t tell the patient, ‘You know, you could save a little money if you just paid cash and you didn’t bother to use insurance along the way.’
“The way things are now, the insurance company would collect its $10 co-payment from the patient and only have to pay $5 to the drug company.
“The insurance company keeps the rest and the patient doesn’t know anything about it. The patient is left in the dark because the pharmacist cannot share this important information with the patient.
“And I believe it’s wrong, and that’s why I cosponsored the legislation that’s on the floor right now.
“The Trump administration has taken a close look at this situation and they completely agree.
“They said that people should know if there’s a simple way they can save money.
And today, I’m hoping that Congress agrees as we vote on this legislation.
“Earlier this month, the Senate passed legislation that prohibits the gag clauses for Medicare plans. And that was the right thing to do.
“It passed unanimously, and I’m so happy to see that.
“Today we’re taking the next step. We’re going beyond Medicare.
“This legislation that we’re about to vote on eliminates the gag clauses in insurance plans that people get through their employer, through their work, plans they buy on their own.
“We are saying with a clear voice today that patients should be able to talk with their pharmacists. Pharmacists should be able to talk with their patients to know if they’re paying the lowest price for their medication.
“I support this bill, and I want to thank the members who led this bipartisan effort.
“It was a privilege to work with Senator Collins, Senator Stabenow, Senator Cassidy, and Senator McCaskill to get this done.
“I appreciate your attention to this important piece of legislation and I look forward to voting to support it and getting it passed today and getting it down to the president for his signature.”
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