Virginians for Affordable Medicine
A Better, Healthier Virginia for All
A Better, Healthier Virginia for All
Americans pay 3x more for their prescription medications compared to the rest of the world. Everyone deserves access to their medications, it’s a no-brainer.
But when pharmaceutical companies are putting profits before patients and it hurts ALL Virginians. There is no question that something has to change.
We are fighting for Virginia to establish a Prescription Drug Ability Board which would set Upper Payment Limits (UPLs) on prescription medicine.
Our goal is simple: Give Virginians affordable access to the prescription medicines they desperately need.
1 out of 4 Virginians reported that they did not fill their prescription and/or rationed their medicine due to cost concerns. In 2020, prices were raised an average of 5.5% on 860 drugs. In the beginning of 2021 , 100 companies raised prices on 636 medicines.
Establishing a PDAB with the legal authority to regulate price caps for prescription medicine statewide is necessary to solve part of the healthcare crisis. Nine states, including Virginia, are currently advancing on creating PDABs.
Through a PDAB, the state would have the ability to set UPLs. The point of the UPL is to increase access to otherwise unaffordable drugs without high patient cost-sharing. Without this, medicines that are not commonly prescribed remain out of reach for the people who need them most.
Prescription drug spending (after manufacturer rebates) accounted for over 21.5 percent of health insurance dollar spending between 2016 and 2018, making it consumers’ single largest expense on insurance premiums. With the implementation of a PDAB, prescription drug spending would decline, thus lowering the cost of health insurance.
Due to the amount of financial influence that the pharmaceutical industry has on Virginian politics, the issue of inequity arises. When regular working class and middle class Americans do not have the time or financial resources to demand for lower prices for their life-saving prescription medicine, the question becomes, “who are our lawmakers working for?”
If you care about Virginia, you care about public health. Share your story with your legislators to show why these policies are important to you.
