If you’re a senior paying exorbitant prices for prescription drugs, the news out of Washington is not very good. That’s because legislation that would help lower those drug prices appears to be stuck, apparently the victim of intense lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry, which reportedly has lured a number of Democratic legislators into its camp. And there is very little, if any Republican support.
To view the interview, click on the video above, or listen to the podcast here:
According to this article from The Hill, a Washington, DC-based publication that covers the federal government, the pharmaceutical industry appears to be on the verge of defeating Biden's proposal to allow the federal government to negotiate drug prices.
So, the forecast for this proposal, a priority of President Biden, is mostly cloudy at best.
However, consumers, senior citizens, voters should not sit on the sidelines and wait to get shafted by big pharma.
That's the word from Chris Orestis, president of Retirement Genius, an expert on financial health, long term care, and retirement issues, who was our guest on this video episode of The Lean to the Left Podcast. Considered a political insider and senior issues advocate, Chris is a former Washington, D.C. lobbyist who has worked at the White House and for the Senate Majority Leader on Capitol Hill.
Big money, Orestis says, will carry the day in Washington unless voters speak up, but if they do, members of Congress will listen because they have to -- if they want to keep their jobs.
"The drug companies know how to play this game very well. They know how to throw some of the sharpest elbows in the ring," he says on the podcast. "They know where to put their support and put their money behind candidates, and they also know how to call in the debts that are owed to them. They are jamming up the works with a small group of legislators who are getting support from them to try and bring this thing to a halt.”
“They’ve been able to peel off three members of a key committee and when you marry that with total objections from the Republican side, the Democrats can’t move it and it’s causing a lot of problems,” according to Orestis.
The three Democratic members cited by Orestis are Reps. Scott Peters (CA), Kurt Schreder (OR) and Kathleen Rice (NY), all members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee. “They all have ties to the pharmaceutical industry,” he said. “So, they are not going to budge,” he says.
Orestis cited polls showing that 85 percent of Americans support for Biden’s Rx drug price reduction plan, “but still three well-placed members of Congress can bring the whole thing to a screeching halt, which costs billions of dollars,” while “forcing them to cough up money they can’t afford, and instead of spending it on things like food, rent, heat, they’re pumping it back into the profits of the drug companies.”
Now is the time for consumers – voters—to speak up, Orestis says.
“The window is open. It’s really just that small group of people that are trying to close it, and they could be pushed out of the way if enough people rally and have their voices heard. It still is America, it still is a democracy, and we all have a voice. Let’s use it.”
On the show, Orestis also offers advice to seniors as the new Medicare enrollment period begins October 15. Check your medications, he says, and compare the reimbursement rates of the various drug plans under Medicare Part B, then choose the one that works best for you.
To view the episode, click here. Or, to just listen, click here.