Running head: HEALTHCARE LAW ISSUES
Healthcare Issue: Prescription drug pricing law
Argument for
The cost of a prescription drug has been too high for the majority of citizens. According
to Califf and Slavitt, (2019) twenty, nine of all adult patients taking prescription drugs do not
complete taking their dosage due to the high costs of taking these medicines. An excellent
example of the high costs of prescription drugs is the witness testimony during a senate finance
committee about the monthly expenses of insulin that amounted to almost seventeen hundred
dollars (Califf, & Slavitt, 2019). The cost of prescription drugs is too high because the process of
acquiring medications from manufacturers is too complicated and expensive. Various supply
chain issues increase unfair payment disparities that put patients at numerous disadvantages. The
H.R.3 the Lowering Drug Costs Now Act of 2019 is empowering negotiations with the
pharmaceutical industry to lower the high prices of prescription drugs
The H. R. 3, the Lowering Drug Costs Now Act of 2019, will enforce a legal mandate
that helps all Medicare enrollees to have a two thousand out of the pocket limit on their
prescription drug costs. This law will further assure financial protection to all patients especially
senior citizens. This law will ensure that all the savings resulting from the bill are redirected and
invested in innovation and research of breath through treatment drugs (Strickler et al., 2019). The
prescription drug price relief Act of 2019 also directs the department of health and human
services (HHS) to review petitioned prices and void any expenses and government-granted
exclusivity. The law will require the HHS to establish a public database that accounts for the
costs of each drug and providing information regarding all non-exclusive licenses that can affect
prescription drug prices. The prescription drug pricing law needs to expedite corresponding
applications for generic drugs and similar biochemical substances. Allowing the drug
HEALTHCARE LAW ISSUES
2
manufacturers to report financial information of specific drug brand is the right step towards
reducing the highly exorbitant pricing system. All industrialized countries have the right to
negotiate drug prices with pharmaceuticals and ensure that there are still enough profits without
making exorbitant windfalls (Gupta, Shah & Ross, 2019)
Argument Against
The H. R. 3, the Lowering Drug Costs Now Act of 2019, will impact the Medicare supply
chain significantly. The drug supply chain is effective due to pharmacy benefit managers who act
as middlemen between drug makers, pharmacies and insurance companies. Reducing the drug
costs will ensure that the market is flooded with cheap generic products that may not be of the
same quality as the drugs manufactured in the US (Gupta, Shah, & Ross, 2019). The introduction
of drug pricing law will have a negative impact on the research process which is estimated to be
round two billion US dollars. Drug pricing law would impact the process of drug research.
development, evaluation, licensing and marketing and therefore affecting the quality of all the
drug quality (Howard et al., 2018).
Drug