Malavika Kesavan is a medical student in Northeast Ohio
CLEVELAND -- Imagine this: A patient shows up in the emergency room after suffering a seizure. You discover she had stopped taking her medication because it became too expensive. You switch her to a cheaper medication, but the side effects are more severe, making it harder for her to go to work.
This is the reality that doctors in Cleveland see every day.
A team of U.S. senators has introduced the Stop Price Gouging Act, sponsored by Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown. The bill aims to reduce unjustified pricing increases by: (1) Requiring drug corporations to report increases in drug prices to the Department of Health and Human Services and justify the increase. (2) Penalizing drug corporations that increase a prescription drug's price beyond the annual percentage increase in the medical-care consumer-price index with financial penalties proportionate to the price hikes.
In November, Ohioans voted down Issue 2, which would have capped some drug prices statewide. Many opponents of the bill were concerned that it did not provide clear guidance on how to enforce the legislation. The Stop Price Gouging Act is separate, clearly written and enforceable legislation, which brings real drug pricing solutions to the national stage.
Currently supported by Democrats and independents, this bill must garner some Republican support to succeed. The issue of lack of access to affordable health care has weighed heavily on Americans this year. Sen. Rob Portman and other Republican members of Congress must respond to growing constituent demands to move beyond words and take action to lower drug prices and other health care costs, or face losing re-election. Sponsorship of the Stop Price Gouging Act is a clear way to respond to the demands of their constituents. This legislation will keep Ohioans out of emergency rooms and result in cost savings on the private, state and federal level. Congress can rein in pharmaceutical corporations only as a bipartisan team.
When a drug goes from $15 to $200 within a few years, you have to question what drives the price increase.
Recently, I spoke with a patient who was experiencing stomach problems. Being sensitive to the commonly prescribed drugs for chronic stomach pain, she needed an alternative that her insurance decided to stop covering. The cheapest listed price for this drug was $2,172.01. Luckily, her friend picked up the drug for her in Romania for less than $100. Why did this drug cost so much in America? I found no explanation other than the fact that pharmaceutical companies can price that high here.
Pharmaceutical corporations contributed to the opioid crisis and now offer solutions in which they are able to further profit. However, we know it doesn't stop there. We have companies like Mylan that increased the price of the lifesaving EpiPen 400 percent over a decade, taking advantage of a system that has an all-too-real impact on us.
In 2015, prices for brand-named medicines rose 14.77 percent, and the price tag for specialty drugs increased 9.2 percent. Meanwhile, generic drug prices rose 2.9 percent, according to Truveris, a market research firm that tracks pharmaceutical pricing, while the general inflation rate was 0.1 percent over the same period. Pharmaceutical corporations maintain one of the highest profit margins out of any industry including tobacco, projected, at the end of 2015, at 30 percent for 2016.
Higher drug prices affect everyone including the insured. Insurance companies pass along their increased costs through premiums and higher co-pays.
It is time for lawmakers and the American people to demand that pharmaceutical corporations come to the table to work toward a responsible and equitable America. Consumer rights advocate Public Citizen asked the top 29 pharmaceutical corporations several times if they would pledge to limit annual price spikes for older medicines to single digits: Twenty-five out of 29 declined.
People shouldn't have to choose between critical medications or paying the heating bill. The Stop Price Gouging Act is the first step in much-needed, reasonable regulation of an industry that has too long taken advantage of the American people.
I've spent much of my life in Ohio; we need to do something now to protect our future. Many Ohioans, including the patient with seizures I mentioned before, are losing access to essential medications because of excessive price increases. It's past time to enact the Stop Price Gouging Act.
Malavika Kesavan is a medical student in Northeast Ohio. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in biology from Case Western Reserve University and later worked in biotech in Baltimore before deciding to return to Ohio for medical school.
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