1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare recipients will begin to see lower costs for prescription drugs as well as a cap on out-of-pocket expenses—saving families millions of dollars each year. While allowing Medicare to begin negotiating drug prices is a crucial first step, it’s critical that Congress do more. The $35 monthly cap on insulin must be extended to all Americans as well as the annual $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs. For the 3rd Quarter of 2023, manufacturers for the first 10 drugs selected for Medicare drug price negotiations made $100.7 billion in revenue and spent $19.96 billion of that revenue enriching shareholders via stock buybacks. Big Pharma price gouging is directly responsible for the U.S. spending $1,126 per capita on prescription medications vs. $522 per capita in comparable countries. Several bills before Congress will begin to reverse this trend, including the Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act (H.R. 4895), the INSULIN Act of 2023 (S.1269), and the Affordable Insulin Now Act of 2023 (S.954). Please cosponsor these bills and work to pass them ASAP. I strongly encourage Congress to take on Big Pharma and lower prescription drug costs for everyone. Thanks.