Menu

Health Care

Drop Your Suits, Drop Your Prices: 70+ Health Groups oppose U.S. Chamber of Commerce lawsuits aiming to prevent life-saving drug price negotiations

0

By Dani Klein

On Wednesday, August 16, Public Citizen and several partner organizations held a press event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to deliver a letter and petition demanding that the Chamber of Commerce and Big Pharma drop their lawsuits against Medicare drug price negotiation provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act and negotiate lower prices. 

As mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), starting in 2023, Medicare will begin to negotiate directly with drug manufacturers to bring down the prices of certain covered high-price prescription drugs. Specifically, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will select single source Medicare drugs covered under Medicare Part B or Part D to be included in the negotiations.1 CMS will announce the first 10 drugs selected for negotiation by September 1, 2023, and the first round of negotiations will occur during 2023 and 2024, with the negotiated prices taking effect in 2026. 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and three regional and local chambers responded to this negotiation plan by filing suit to declare the price negotiation program unconstitutional, and similar suits have also been filed by several pharmaceutical companies as well as the industry’s lobbying group, PhRMA. The Chamber also filed a motion for preliminary injunction, requesting that the court immediately halt the drug price negotiation program before negotiations are set to start in October. The suit and the motion were filed on the grounds that the IRA’s drug price negotiation program violates the separation of powers, violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, violates the First Amendment by compelling speech, and several other Constitution-based objections to the IRA drug price negotiations.  

In an amicus curiae brief filed a few days before the press event, Public Citizen argued that the Chamber’s request for an injunction should be denied because of the irreparable public harm that delaying the IRA’s negotiation timeline would cause.  

The legal challenges from the Chamber of Commerce and Big Pharma have the potential to significantly delay negotiation of life-saving drug prices to more affordable levels, while patients have already waited nearly 20 years for Medicare to be granted this commonsense authority. Nearly three in ten American adults who take prescription medication have skipped doses, rationed their drugs, or not filled prescriptions due to rising costs. College student Jacqueline Garibay, Washington D.C. resident Laura Marston, and Medicare patient Arthur Blair all spoke at the recent press event about their experiences losing their savings, their jobs, their possessions, and their time to the constant struggle to afford the drugs they need to survive. If pharmaceutical companies continue to price gouge and refuse to meet the government at the negotiating table, they will be directly responsible for endangering the lives of millions of Americans. 

who is McConnell protecting: essential workers or essential donors?

Public Citizen Issue Brief Documents Chamber’s False Cries That the Sky is Falling

, , , , 0

By Nick Papazyan, Congress Watch Legal Intern

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed more American lives than all of the wars since the Korean War– combined. The virus is raging across the country, and we haven’t even begun what scientists call the “second wave.” At a time when we should be prioritizing public health and safety, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) are seeking to immunize businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits. On July 16, Public Citizen published an issue brief that exposes how the Chamber opportunistically uses moments of national emergency, such as a pandemic, to advance its anti-consumer agenda. Immunizing businesses would endanger workers, slow reopening of businesses, and give corporate wrongdoers a pass when they fail to take reasonable actions to keep people safe.

Despite the Chamber’s warnings that a flood of coronavirus cases is imminent, its rhetoric has no basis in fact. The issue brief exposes how the Chamber has used Chicken Little’s the “sky is falling” rhetoric for more than 20 years to scare legislators, the media, and the public to limit individuals’ access to the justice system

Yet, the sky never falls. A flood of litigation never emerges.

Months deep into the pandemic, there is no sign of a flood of coronavirus litigation against companies. In fact, the biggest bucket of cases by far are business-to-business lawsuits. The second biggest number of cases are civil rights violations, many of which only seek court intervention to stop alleged civil rights violations rather than award money damages.

Yet, the Chamber continues to push a false and hyperbolic narrative, even when it is unpopular with the public. Sixty-four percent of voters oppose letting corporations off the hook by giving them immunity from liability if it is proved that a company “engaged in unsafe practices.” That includes 72% of Democrats, 64% of Independents, and 56% of Republicans.

As the issue brief cogently points out, “[i]mmunity from liability will not restore our country from this time of hardship.” Instead, make sure that Mitch McConnell knows that lawmakers must prioritize public health over corporate profits. Only then, after businesses are safe for workers, consumers, and patients, can the nation begin to recover.

healthcare worker holding clipboard

The Chamber’s Support for Junk Plans Puts Industry Profits Ahead of Americans’ Health Care Needs

, 0

Recently, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released an issue brief entitled “Association Health Plans: Everything You Need to Know.” The brief argues for expanded “association health plans” (AHPs)—junk health care plans with skimpy coverage and without Affordable Care Act protections—to address the problem of rising health insurance premiums.

In characteristic fashion, the Chamber has enthusiastically boosted an industry-friendly “solution” to a real problem – despite the fact that their proposal would not actually solve the core issue and would leave American households with inadequate coverage and the potential for huge medical bills if they get sick.

The brief points out that “[t]he number of small businesses offering health coverage has declined significantly over the years, from 47% in 2000 to 29% in 2016, in part because many entrepreneurs simply can’t afford to offer high-priced comprehensive plans.” Here, the Chamber has made the correct diagnosis—but its prescription is ill-conceived and misses the mark completely.

The Chamber favors a 2018 ruling instituted by the Department of Labor that would sabotage American health care. Recently, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the DOL rule’s two key provisions are unlawful, and so parts of the rule have been halted and the establishment of new AHPs is currently prohibited. The Chamber, however, disagrees with this decision and has filed an amicus brief with an appellate court in an effort to have it reversed. With its issue brief, the Chamber hopes to make the case for AHPs as a supposedly great way to deal with rising premiums, when it would instead allow unscrupulous insurers to offer poor coverage.

If the District Court’s ruling were reversed, it would make it easier for insurers to offer these junk plans, which often exclude ACA required benefits, such as prescription drugs and quality maternity care. Enrollees who get sick could be responsible for significant expenses, forcing them into debt for care and even risking medical bankruptcy.

These plans are not required to meet many of the standards that were established under the Affordable Care Act. For instance, AHPs are allowed to charge different rates based on gender, age and location. And while they are not allowed to discriminate in coverage or pricing on the basis of pre-existing conditions, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes that some AHPs can circumvent this prohibition by “consider[ing] the pre-existing conditions and the past medical claims of small business workers when setting premiums (known as ‘medical underwriting’).” This could mean that AHPs would target younger and healthier industries and workplaces to offer cheap rates, but leaving those workers on the hook for huge expenses down the road.

Furthermore, expanding AHPs would have the disastrous effect of further destabilizing the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. By cherry-picking the youngest and healthiest Americans through attracting them with deceivingly lower premiums, they would leave only the sick to be covered under ACA-compliant plans, causing premiums for such plans to rise. Allowing the sale of poorly regulated plans takes us back to a time when greedy insurers offered false promises to consumers and abandoned them when they got sick.

It is true that small businesses struggle to provide adequate health care benefits to their employees due to the rising costs of health care. However, covering those employees under sham AHPs with skimpy coverage is not the answer. Instead, we must confront the actual root of the problem: the private insurance market’s bottomless appetite for profiting from Americans’ illness.

A far more sensible solution is for the United States to adopt Medicare for All. Under such a system, small businesses would no longer have to worry about providing insurance to their employees; instead, those employees would be automatically enrolled in guaranteed coverage that does not discriminate by age or gender and would not leave employees in the lurch. Employers would even benefit from the fact that Medicare for All would improve Americans’ overall health, reducing sick days taken and increasing productivity.

Of course, the Chamber would never concede that expanding and improving Medicare to cover all Americans is the best way to solve the problems of excessive health plan costs. It would never want to endanger the profit margins of its industry cronies in Big Pharma, private insurance, biotechnology and others who rely on the cruelty and callousness of our disastrous for-profit health care system. Indeed, the Chamber is actively working to obstruct the momentum of Medicare for All, with Chamber president Tom Donohue promising to “use all of our resources to combat” such reform.

We should reject AHPs and any other corporate-approved proposals that pose as “solutions” to the issues of excessive health care costs in America. The Chamber loves to endorse measures that masquerade as solutions but actually exacerbate or perpetuate the injustices in our society. The public should see those proposals for the charade they are. Instead of adopting industry-friendly solutions to industry-caused problems, we must demand Medicare for All because it would finally put people ahead of profits when it comes to health care in America.

U.S. Chamber Watch is a project of Public Citizen. If you’d like to learn more about the Chamber, you can always visit us on www.chamberofcommercewatch.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

toy figures in villain outfits

The US Chamber of Commerce’s Cabal Opposing Medicare-for-All is No “Justice League”

0

In superhero comics and movies, it’s not uncommon for groups of heroes to put aside their differences and team up to fight injustice (think the Avengers or the Justice League). By banding together and synergizing their powers, these team-ups allow the heroes to be much more powerful as a collective than they could be as individuals.

This is a blog post about… not that.

See, comics also frequently have villain team-ups, wherein a motley crew of ne’er-do-wells gang up to wreak more havoc on society as a group than they could on their own.

In November, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce formed what it called the “Partnership for America’s Health Care Future,” which is a coalition of American groups representing varied private health industries that reap enormous profits from health care costs paid by the American people. Though the Chamber likes to paint this as an alliance of heroes fighting for justice—a kind of real life Justice League—there’s plenty of good reason to believe it’s a team-up of the more villainous variety.

These pharmaceutical, insurance, and hospital special interests do not share the same goals on every issue, but on this one particular issue they are aligned with the U.S. Chamber: it is very profitable to them to keep the health care status quo in America. This is an issue so important to the Chamber that its president, Thomas Donohue, said during his 2019 annual “State of American Business” address that it plans to use “all of its resources” to achieve its goal. That goal? Stopping single-payer healthcare. The Partnership’s desperation to stop the growing momentum and popularity of Medicare-for-All showcases a desire to preserve the status quo on the part of those who profit from it, no matter the cost to ordinary Americans.

Here is the not-so-super reality: Compared to other developed nations, America spends far more to get far less in terms of health care results. We live in a country where 30 million people lack health insurance; where even those who are insured face rising premiums, the risk of gaps in services covered, a confusing and frustrating labyrinth of in-network and out-of-network providers, and the possibility of enormous bills leaving them deeply in debt or facing bankruptcy. Too many Americans feel afraid to start their own small business (ostensibly a high priority for the Chamber) or to move to an area or work in the field of their choice because losing their employer-provided insurance could be financially devastating. Lack of access to adequate health insurance is a key reason Americans routinely skip needed treatment or skip doses of prescribed medications due to the cost. One study found that America had the highest rate of deaths preventable by access to appropriate health care of the 16 industrialized nations it examined.

Medicare-for-All would ensure universal coverage, allowing the 30 million currently uninsured Americans to finally seek the health care they need but cannot afford. It would eliminate the problem of certain services, such as mental health care, being simply unaffordable for large segments of the population. It would do away with health insurance provider networks, which can result in patients unknowingly being treated by an out-of-network provider and stuck with an astronomical surprise bill. It would keep Americans healthier by relieving the pressure to skip out on preventive care. And it would bring America in line with comparable developed nations in terms of the superior results we’d be getting for our healthcare spending.

One thing that Medicare-for-All would not do, however, is allow the US Chamber and its private health industry cronies to continue getting richer while the rest of us suffer.

The truth is that Medicare-for-All is not some world-threatening Big Bad that the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future is teaming up to defend the country from. In reality, it is just the opposite. And, since the Chamber and its big business allies are looking to maintain a health care system that places profits over people’s health, it’s no shocking plot twist that it is attempting to confuse and distract the public to hide that fact. That sort of conniving might make Lex Luthor or Dr. Doom let out a menacing cackle of delight.

In the fight for Medicare-for-All, it is We the People—grassroots activists from across the nation and the politicians who represent us—who are the real superheroes. It’s time for We the People to band together to take on the enormous and intimidating foe of American corporate profiteers to demand a more just health care system for everyone in the U.S. Afterwards, the celebratory shawarma is on us.

U.S. Chamber Watch is a project of Public Citizen. If you’d like to learn more about the Chamber, you can always visit us on www.chamberofcommercewatch.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo credit: Flickr user Veera.P Veenasee (DC Supervillains)
[CC-BY 4.0]/Cropped and Resized from Original