High Prices, Broken Promises

Making Prescription Drugs Affordable

For decades, politicians and policymakers have vowed to rein in skyrocketing drug prices, but most efforts have failed or were blunted by Big Pharma. That’s about to change due to healthcare provisions that enable Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for the first time, price drops in insulin after enormous public pressure, and disruptive new players like Civica, the nonprofit generic drug maker who has brought new competition and the promise of a new low-cost insulin to the marketplace.

Why it matters

$390 M

Spent on lobbying by pharmaceutical companies in 2021

5.6%

Average price increase of prescription drugs at the start of 2023

2024

Medicare begins negotiation for first 10 Rx drugs

$237 B

Expected reduction of the federal deficit from the Inflation Reduction Act

Objective

Make prescription drugs more affordable through pricing reforms at state and federal levels.

Current Goals

Expand and protect recent policy actions to lower the price of prescription drugs, including Medicare negotiation.

Increase awareness of the dangers of high-priced drugs to public health.

Reduce financial burden of prescription drugs on older adults.

Spotlight

Americans Support Medicare Negotiation

Despite overwhelming support from everyday Americans, Big Pharma has vowed to fight the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program that empowers the agency to negotiate the prices of certain prescription drugs for the first time in history.

The public’s overwhelming support for this policy, even as we head into a presidential election, makes one thing exceedingly clear: people know unfair, anticompetitive behavior when they see it and they want it to stop.
Timothy Lash
President & Chair, West Health Policy Center

A West Health-Gallup public opinion survey shows 83% of Americans favor the program, including 95% of Democrats, 76% of Independents, and 75% of Republicans. Similar levels of support were consistent across age, race, gender, income levels, and education.

83%

Americans support empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices

$100 B

Projected savings over the next decade

Read the Press Release