Processed medications await pick up at the pharmacy on Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., Oct. 25, 2011. Pharmacists in the 28th Medical Support Squadron carefully screen all medications to ensure quality product is supplied to their patients. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Zachary Hada/Released)
The IAM, along with 90 other organizations representing patients, consumers, seniors, unions, small businesses, large employers, physicians, and disease advocacy groups, wrote a letter urging the Senate to immediately advance a reconciliation package that includes the reforms to lower prescription drug prices agreed to in the Build Back Better Act.
Rising prices for prescription drugs have been a top concern for IAM members and retirees.
“If Congress lets the pharmaceutical industry overcharge Americans and dictate astronomical prices for brand-name drugs in our country, then patients, workers, employers, and taxpayers will continue to shoulder the burden of prices that are nearly three times what people in other comparable nations pay,” states the letter. “Congress has repeatedly promised to address this problem, and the American people need the help now more than ever.
“Enacting the drug price reforms agreed upon in the Build Back Better package will mark a truly historic shift in the U.S. drug pricing policy. Not only will it break the pharmaceutical industry’s unilateral power to dictate prices to the American people, but it will also save lives, improve health, fight inflation, and put more money back into the pockets of American seniors, workers, and businesses.”
The IAM will continue to advocate for lower prescription drug prices reforms included in the Build Back Better Act.