Statement on the New Budget Reconciliation Framework

The Purchaser Business Group on Health is profoundly disappointed that the budget reconciliation framework announced today by President Biden omits any policies to deal with unaffordable prescription drugs.

For working families, the cost of prescription drugs is more than a burden – it is a matter of life and death. According to a recent study by the West Health Policy Center, “if current drug pricing trends continue … cost-related non-adherence to drug therapy will result in the premature deaths of 112,000 beneficiaries a year, making it a leading cause of death in the U.S., ahead of diabetes, influenza, pneumonia, and kidney disease.”

American businesses and consumers pay far more for prescription drugs than people in any other country – largely because we lack the ability to limit prices ​and price increases for drugs with no competition. Addressing the cost of prescription drugs is an economic issue. Earnings siphoned off by high drug costs limit job creation and wage growth, divert investment and cripple competitiveness and innovation.

The President and congressional leaders have made promises that they would address the outrageously high prices working families pay for prescription drugs. They owe it to the American people, and America’s employers, which provide health ​benefits for more than 160 million people, to deliver on the promise of lower prescription drug costs.

Failing to act now will mean that employers and working families will continue to see their budgets squeezed by drug companies using their monopolies to drive up prices to ever higher amounts. We urge President Biden and Congress to deliver on their promises and provide needed relief from high drug prices. Now is the time to get it done.