Spectrum News: Lawmakers Split on fix for surging prescription drug costs

There’s bipartisan interest in tackling the surging prices of prescription drugs before the midterm elections, but lawmakers are divided on how much action the federal government should take in curbing those rising costs.

Gov. Tony Evers passed a bill last year that requires pharmacists to be more transparent around medication costs

The need for federal help is there, according to Yolanda Tolson-Eveans, pharmacist in charge at St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy.

“The surges in the cost of living in general, with gas prices and everything going on, she said. “People have to make difficult choices.”

She has been looking for ways to make those choices easier. The Madison-based pharmacist served on a task force created by Gov. Tony Evers three years ago to investigate solutions to addressing the issue of skyrocketing medication costs. That panel led to a law the governor signed last year, requiring more transparency in prescription drug pricing.

“I think that our group, in a small way, kind of proves that this is actually something that could be extended to a larger focus for the country at large,” Tolson-Eveans said.

Congressman Bryan Steil, R-Janesville agreed. He rolled out legislation requiring price tags on medication commercials.

“Sometimes seniors, in particular, have a difficult time identifying is there a generic or less expensive alternative that would work just as well,” he said. “And so working with my colleagues on across the aisle, we've come together to say 'let's have transparency, in particular, as it relates to prescription drugs and the advertisements we see every day on tv.’”

On the other side of Capitol Hill, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin is eyeing a crackdown on price gouging during the pandemic on everything from drugs to gasoline. She’s pushing a bill that would require companies to disclose any changes to costs and allow state attorneys general to enforce standards against excessive pricing.

“This legislation will shine a light on price hikes and help prevent big corporations from exploiting a period of inflation to gouge consumers with higher costs,” she wrote in a statement.

Tolson-Eveans said those two measures would be a long overdue start.

“As a pharmacist, we are seeing the prices every day as we process claims for patients," she said. "And for folks that don't have insurance, we're seeing the cash price, so we see that direct impact. I think for providers and other folks that are kind of further away from the actual dispensing of the medication, sometimes you can lose sight of that.”

Lawmakers just have to agree on where to start. Rep. Steil said he’s not in favor of the recent bills Democrats have been floating around capping the cost of insulin and allowing medicare to negotiate drug prices.

“When the government controls price, the price actually rises and quality comes down,” Rep. Steil said. “I do think though, in the bill that I've put forward in a bipartisan way, one of the things we can work on is transparency.”