Lawmakers will seek to set upper payment limits for all Marylanders on pricey prescriptions next legislative session following a recent decision to cap the price that the state government and local governments have to pay for some drugs.
“The skyrocketing price of prescription drugs remains a pressing issue in the state,” Sen. Dawn Gile, an Anne Arundel County Democrat, said in Annapolis on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the state Legislative Policy Committee approved a measure to allow the Maryland Prescription Drug Affordability Board, a five-member independent agency created by the legislature in 2019, to move forward with cost limits for prescription drugs purchased for state and local government employees on a vote of 16-5.
House Health and Government Operations Committee Vice Chair Bonnie Cullison of Montgomery County said during a news conference Thursday that the Legislative Policy Committee’s decision means that Maryland is “likely to be the first state in the nation to implement an upper payment limit of some kind.”
“While we know this is important, and it will provide meaningful financial relief for strained government budgets, this does not mark the finish line in our fight for prescription drug affordability,” she said. “This is just the foundation.”
Under existing state law, the Prescription Drug Affordability Board only holds the authority to cap costs the government pays for certain prescriptions.
State lawmakers are looking to change that.
Legislation to be sponsored in 2025 by Gile, Collusion, Senate Finance Committee Chair Brian Feldman of Montgomery County and Del. Jennifer White Holland of Baltimore County, all Democrats, will seek to expand the Prescription Drug Affordability Board’s authority to set upper-payment limits for expensive prescription drugs for all Maryland residents.
Their slogan is, “Drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them.”
According to Gile, one in three Marylanders have reported skipping doses, rationing medication or not picking up their prescriptions from the pharmacy because of their costs.
“I’m excited for us to build on the board’s historic progress that was made this week,” she said. “It is time to ensure that all Marylanders have access to the medications that they need, because drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them.”
Jonas Nguh is a registered nurse and the president of the Maryland Public Health Association. He also lives with chronic health conditions that require him to depend on several long-term prescription drugs to stay alive.
He said Thursday that he spends a quarter of his income on necessary medication for he and his 85-year-old mother.
“I am regularly forced to make sacrifices to afford my medications, whether it is forgoing paying a utility bill, limiting grocery shopping, or paying for housing late,” Nguh said. “No one should have to make these decisions.”
The impact of lower drug prices could reach further than those who simply can’t afford them.
During the 2024 legislative session, representatives of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange told lawmakers that prescription drug costs account for 30% of the total spending for privately insured markets on the exchange in Maryland.
“That means that even Marylanders who find that, currently, their out-of-pocket costs are perfectly manageable, they’re paying for the skyrocketing costs through insurance premiums,” Cullison said. “Giving our board — giving our Prescription Drug Affordability Board — the authority to set statewide upper-payment limits is what we always intended.”
Holland, a member of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, said that Black Marylanders are particularly affected by soaring prescription drug costs due to persistent racial health inequities, noting that adults of color over 65 are one-and-a-half- to two-times more likely to report difficulty affording prescription medications than white adults in the same age range.
In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which, among many other measures, allows Medicare to negotiate with drug corporations over prescription costs, caps the price of insulin at $35 for Medicare recipients and, in 2025, will install a ceiling for enrollees’ prescription costs at $2,000 out-of-pocket, annually.
According to Tammy Bresnahan, the senior director of advocacy for AARP Maryland, Marylanders 65 and older take between one and four prescription drugs daily.
“This is a health justice issue, and it’s unacceptable that the market and the prescription drug supply chain have been allowed to operate in dysfunction for far too long,” Holland said. “We can’t afford to wait any longer.”
Maryland’s 2025 legislative session begins Jan. 8, 2025.
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