Skip to main content

Rep. Wild: People are dying because they can’t afford their life-saving prescriptions.

September 27, 2019

WASHINGTON - Yesterday in a House Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee hearing, U.S. Representative Susan Wild (PA-07) called attention to the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs in the Greater Lehigh Valley and urged passage of H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act. This bold legislation would end price gouging by pharmaceutical companies who charge Americans more for the same drugs as those sold in other countries.

"We have people dying because they cannot afford their prescription drug prices and that, to me, is unethical for the richest country in the world," Wild said. "We cannot continue to have profits over people as the most important thing governing this discussion. I have constituents who themselves are rationing their insulin, whose family members have died because they rationed or didn't have their insulin available to them because of the price. And I'm not about to go back to them and say, ‘Let's leave it up to the market to determine what the price of your insulin should be'. Because you know what? The market has completely failed them. And that's why we are here now. That's why this bill is coming before the House. Because we, as a country, and pharmaceuticals as an industry, have completely failed the American people, and we can't let it continue."

Last month, Wild endorsed the Pennsylvania Health Access Network's principles for lowering the costs of prescription drugs in the Greater Lehigh Valley, shortly after a press conference held by Wild and Protect Our Care, where she heard from constituents and community health care advocates and released a report on the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs in the Greater Lehigh Valley. In May, Wild led a bipartisan amendment to stop the rising cost of premiums and, with the support of 78 Republicans, passed the House as a part H.R. 986, the Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act. These continuous legislative initiatives are vital to the larger effort to strengthen the Affordable Care Act (ACA), protect people with pre-existing conditions, and take new measures to lower the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs for Pennsylvania families.

###