House Legislation on the Right Track

House Legislation Would Help Lower Prescription Drug Prices, Protect the Affordable Care Act

by Robert Roach, Jr.

House Democrats recently passed legislation to lower prescription drug costs and reverse the Administration’s attempts to undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA). H.R. 987, the “Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act,” passed 234-183.

The prescription drug provisions have significant bipartisan support, reflecting the fact that Americans pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Yet only four GOP House members voted for it.

The bill would make it easier for generic drugs to enter the market. Currently, some pharmaceutical corporations purposely delay the introduction of affordable generic alternatives. For example, they make brand-name samples of their drug unavailable to generic manufacturers for testing. By removing these and other barriers, H.R. 987 can reduce drug costs for millions of Americans.

The bill also blocks some of the most harmful elements of the Administration’s ACA sabotage by making it more difficult to sell inadequate short-term insurance plans that destabilize health care exchanges. 

The legislation improves outreach to help more Americans obtain health insurance, provides funds to create more state health exchanges and reduces health care costs for people with pre-existing conditions. Twenty-five million Americans aged 50 to 64 years old have one or more pre-existing conditions.

The House leadership passed this important legislation despite resistance from powerful drug corporations. Now we must dig in and urge Senators to follow suit. We have our work cut out for us.

Robert Roach, Jr. is president of the Alliance for Retired Americans.  He was previously General Secretary‐Treasurer of the IAMAW.  For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org.

Brilliant Speech by AOC

Our Dependence on China

Our Pharmaceutical Dependence on China

China has been a thorn in the side of American steelmakers since the communist nation joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.

Approximately 50,000 United Steelworker (USW) jobs were eliminated as China and its partners in crime dumped inexpensive, poor-quality steel into the United States market.

But since the President’s steel and aluminum tariffs, it is estimated that nearly 7,000 American steelworker jobs have been added to domestic mills.

While this is especially good news for SOAR members who need a well-funded health program and pension fund, China may be hitting retirees in another scary way.

Most SOAR members are baby boomers that unfortunately develop a variety of health problems that require vital medications.

Just as we once assumed that our steel structures were erected with American-made steel, today we assume that our medications are made in America with close monitoring by the Food and Drug Administration.

But the shocking news is that 80 percent of active ingredients in America’s pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter drugs are manufactured in China and India, according to Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh, authors of a new book “China RX: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine.

Many of the drugs that Americans depend upon, including antibiotics, vitamin C and even cancer drugs are made in China with little regulation.

“The FDA says the drugs are safe. But the outsourcing of America’s medicine production is so complex it seems impossible to ensure that they are safe,” Gibson and Singh write.

In the last ten years, the FDA has announced recalls of Chinese-made medicines, some of which have even caused death. 

If China didn’t disrupt your life when you were working in the mill, there is a chance it will cause irreparable damage when you are ill.

Jeff Bonior, Staff Writer for the Alliance for American Manufacturing