Daines Introduces Bill to Lower Prescription Drug Costs, Expand Treatment for Montanans

U.S. Senator Steve Daines, Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, introduced the “Lower Costs, More Cures Act,” which will support Montanans by lowering prescription drug prices, increasing transparency in the complex prescription drug pricing process and encouraging American ingenuity in the development of new treatments and cures.

“Year after year, Montanans continue to face out of control prescription drugs costs. Folks in Montana and across the country should not have to choose between putting food on their table or paying for their medicine,” Daines said. “Congress should act to address the high out of pocket costs for prescription drugs, and we must do it now.”

The “Lower Costs, More Cures Act,” among other things, would:

• Modernize payments for drugs delivered in the doctor’s office under Medicare Part B

• Incentivize lower-cost alternatives, or biosimilars

• Establish an annual out-of-pocket cap of $3,100 for Medicare Part D enrollees and allow certain patients to pay in monthly installments

• Decrease beneficiary cost sharing from 25 percent to 15 percent of costs before the out-of-pocket cap is reached

• Allow prescription drug plan sponsors to offer, at minimum, up to four Part D plans per region, spurring competition and innovation

• Make permanent the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation model that enables Part D enrollees taking insulin to limit out-of-pocket costs to $35

• Allow state Medicaid programs to enter in outcomes-based agreements to pay for life-saving gene therapy treatments

• Provide the HHS Secretary with the authority to require drug manufacturers to provide pricing information on all direct-to-consumer advertising

• Codify a Trump Administration regulatory action that classifies insulin and other treatments for chronic conditions as preventative care so that high deductible health plans can cover costs before the patient reaches the deductible

• Create a trade negotiator solely dedicated to putting American patients first in government trade negotiations related to medicines in order to prevent foreign free-loading off America’s investment.