The EACH/PIC Coalition submitted written testimony to the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Healthcare Financing ahead of consideration of S.875. The letter urged the committee to oppose the legislation that would establish a Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) in Massachusetts.
The letter stated:
“While we share with you the goals of lowering unaffordable out-of-pocket (OOP) drug costs and ensuring all Commonwealth residents can access critical medications, we believe PDABs have proven in other states to be costly and ineffective at achieving these goals and will ultimately cause more harm by creating added barriers between patients and needed care.”
“Although well-intentioned, UPLs fail to address many of the underlying causes and complicated factors that result in higher prescription drug costs for patients. Therefore, we urge legislators to focus their time on identifying and addressing patient-reported obstacles to drug affordability.”
“[W]e ask you to continue to reject ineffective and counterproductive proposals like S.875 and focus instead on patient-driven reforms that remove barriers to care and drive up costs for patients and providers. More effective reforms include measures to make monthly drug costs more predictable for patients, eliminate anticompetitive practices by pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) “middlemen”, and ensure negotiated drug rebates and third-party copay assistance are fully-passed on to patients instead of being pocketed by PBMs.”