Directions: Track a piece of health care legislation (current or previous legislative session). Describe the legislation. Include, bill number, title, purpose, aim, objectives, goals of the legislation Explain the rationale for selecting the legislation. Include research findings that related to the need for the legislation. Identify who supported and opposed the legislation and provide detailed rational why they supported or opposed the legislation. Describe current status of the bill and the outcome of the legislation Discuss the economic impact of the legislation related to cost and quality of care

Directions: Track a piece of health care legislation (current or previous legislative session). Describe the legislation. Include, bill number, title, purpose, aim, objectives, goals of the legislation Explain the rationale for selecting the legislation. Include research findings that related to the need for the legislation. Identify who supported and opposed the legislation and provide detailed rational why they supported or opposed the legislation. Describe current status of the bill and the outcome of the legislation Discuss the economic impact of the legislation related to cost and quality of care

Solution

Legislation Description

One of the most impactful bills that were introduced in the 116th Congress, which was convened between 2019 and 2020, was the prescription drug pricing reduction act of 2020. S.4199 – Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act of 2020 was introduced by Senator Grassley Chuck, who is the Republican Senator for Iowa (Congress.gov, 2020). The main purpose of the prescription drug pricing reduction act of 2020 was to amend different titles of the social security act so as to allow the reduction of prices of prescription drugs among patients utilizing Medicare and Medicaid programs. The bill was also intended to improve transparency related to pharmaceutical transactions and prices and to lower the out-of-pocket costs facing patients while ensuring accountability of pharmaceutical companies to taxpayers (Congress.gov, 2020). Senator Grassley introduced the bill on the 2nd of July 2020. The main objective of the prescription drug pricing reduction act of 2020 was to implement changes in different government-funded insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid so as to reduce the prices of prescription drugs. The bill sought to address different things, including requiring pharmaceutical companies to provide rebates to the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services for various drugs that were covered under Medicare in instances where such pharmaceutical companies increased prices faster than inflation (Congress.gov, 2020). The bill also requires drug manufacturers to provide rebates to CMS for any single doses of drugs that were discarded under the Medicare program based on the information that was reported by providers. The bill also sought to reduce out-of-pocket spending by eliminating a beneficiary cost-sharing approach under the Medicare prescription drug benefit (Congress.gov, 2020). The bill also required the adoption of pricing models for prescription drugs that prohibited any form of spread pricing and also increased the number of rebates payable to pharmaceutical companies under the Medicaid drug rebate program. The bill also required the CMS to provide the necessary information related to rebates, drug discounts, and payments between pharmacy benefits, managers, pharmacies, and health plans publicly (Congress.gov, 2020).

Legislation Rationale

One of the most concerning issues in the healthcare sector in the US currently is health care costs. Over the past several decades, health care costs have risen significantly and raised the concern of numerous stakeholders, including patients at care providers and regulators such as the government. According to Crowley et al. (2020), healthcare spending rose by nearly a trillion dollars between 2009 and 2019, even when considering inflation. By 2019 healthcare spending in the US was nearly 3.8 trillion, which represented $11582 per person annually (Papanicolas et al., 2018). The cost of healthcare in the US represents the highest cost in the world, even considering developed countries. By 2028 it is expected that the cost of healthcare in the US will rise to nearly $6.2 trillion, representing an average of $18,000 per person annually (Shrank et al., 2021). The skyrocketing costs of healthcare in the US have therefore remained an issue of great concern among various stakeholders, including patients and political leaders. As the costs of healthcare in the US have continued to rise significantly every year, the income for individuals and families has stagnated for many decades resulting in a significant proportion of the population not being able to afford healthcare services. A record number of the population in the US can also not be able to afford insurance coverage. A combination of lack of health insurance cover and skyrocketing costs of healthcare contributes significantly to the lack of access to healthcare services among low-income and marginalized populations (Shrank et al., 2019). It has therefore become important for regulators such as Congress and the Federal Government to adopt various interventions to try and control the cost of healthcare in the US. Over the years, various legislations have been introduced in Congress in a bid to control healthcare costs. The prescription drug pricing reduction act of 2020 is one of the most recent regulations that has been introduced in Congress to try and deal with the challenge of skyrocketing healthcare costs.

Legislation Support and Opposition

There are various groups that were in support of the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act of 2020, which include Republican senators and representatives of professional nursing organizations and different non-governmental organizations. The main rationale that Republican senators and representatives provided in support of the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act o