Pallone Blasts Republican Partisan Bill to Undermine Democrats’ Progress in Lowering Prescription Drug Costs

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr.'s (D-NJ) remarks as prepared for delivery on the House floor today in opposition to H.R. 485, the so-called Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act:

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 485, the so-called Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act, a bill that unfortunately does not live up to its name. This legislation is not about protecting health care for patients. Instead, it is a trojan horse intended to undermine the progress President Biden and Democrats have made in lowering prescription drug costs for American families. 

My Republican colleagues say this bill is intended to prevent the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) from using a measure called the Quality Adjusted Life Year, or QALY, which could be discriminatory against Americans living with disabilities. But federal law—including in the Inflation Reduction Act—already prohibits Medicare from using QALYs in its coverage determinations and state Medicaid programs are required by law to cover all drugs.  

Instead, H.R. 485 goes further than current law and opens a backdoor that could be used to bar the use of any value measures by the federal government. These measures are used by federal agencies such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and by states, to negotiate fair prices for prescription drugs.

When this bill came before the Energy and Commerce Committee, I sought to clarify its intent through an amendment during markup. My amendment would have ensured the legislation could not be construed to undermine federal agencies or the Biden Administration’s ongoing work to lower prescription drug prices for Americans – but that amendment was rejected on a party line vote.  

I still do not understand why the Republican majority would be opposed to clarifying that the bill before us today is not intended to undermine the federal government’s efforts to determine fair prices for prescription drugs.  

Now I respect the Chairwoman of our Committee a great deal, but she keeps talking about how this bans "similar discriminatory measures." However, the fact of the matter is that the bill doesn't say "similar discriminatory measures." If she had said during the markup that she was willing to ban things that were discriminatory then it might have been a different situation, we might have had consensus. But that's not what's going on here. This says "QALYs or similar measures" – not "similar discriminatory measures." And some may say, what's the difference – the difference is the word "discriminatory" is not in the language of the bill. We have no problem banning things that are discriminatory, like QALYs or other similar discriminatory measures. But that's not there.

And so the problem is that this will be used by Big Pharma to raise prices. The vagueness of the language opens up the door to Pharma and the drug companies to sue and say negotiated prices and efforts to reduce costs are not acceptable. And I'm not suggesting that's what the Republicans have in mind, but that's the reality of it. This is backed by Pharma because they want to use it to undermine every effort by Democrats to bring down costs for prescription drugs in the Medicare market, the Medicaid market, Veterans Affairs, and down the list.

I’m also deeply concerned that the ambiguity in the bill text would be a prime target for litigation by the pharmaceutical industry, an industry that has already shown a willingness to sue to keep outrageously high prescription drug prices in place. We know that Big Pharma is already using similar tactics to try to fight the implementation of the Medicare drug price negotiation program enacted by the Inflation Reduction Act. And this bill could give them yet another point of entry to undermine Medicare’s ongoing work to negotiate prescription drug prices. 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) agreed that this legislation will hinder the ability of our federal health programs to lower costs. CBO estimates that H.R. 485 will increase spending for prescription drugs in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health programs, including the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs health programs, by $1.1 billion in the next ten years, and potentially tens of billions in the years that follow.  

To pay for this, the Republican bill before us today would gut the Affordable Care Act’s Prevention and Public Health Fund. It has long been the goal of Republicans to decimate the ACA’s essential funding stream to lower health care costs through prevention. This funding goes to our state and local partners to improve public health and prevent chronic diseases. It also funds programs to encourage smoking cessation, prevent childhood lead poisoning, and enhance infectious disease control.  

This fund plays a critical role in our efforts to help the American people live healthier lives. House Republicans’ decision to cut the prevention fund in order to throw more money at their Big Pharma friends makes it clear that they are not interested in reaching consensus or finding a bipartisan solution. Instead, they would rather jam through a partisan bill that will hurt the very communities they claim to be helping.  

Mr. Chairman, this bill is nothing more than a giveaway to Big Pharma at the expense of the American people and our nation’s public health. I strongly oppose H.R. 485 and urge my colleagues to oppose it as well.  

Thank you, I reserve the balance of my time.  

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