Note: The Center for American Progress is represented in this matter by Hannah Brennan and Sophia Weaver of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.
The Inflation Reduction Act made historic inroads into lowering Medicare prescription drug prices. This includes empowering the secretary of health and human services to directly negotiate drug prices on behalf of the Medicare program. Pharmaceutical companies across the industry—in an attempt to safeguard profits and retain the ability to set drug prices as high as the market will bear—are suing to block that authority.
On December 22, 2023, CAP, joined by the NAACP, filed an amicus brief in response to one such case, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services et al., to underscore how critical Medicare drug price negotiation is to improving beneficiary access and affordability for Medicare Part D drugs. The brief emphasizes how significant the impacts of Medicare drug price negotiation will be for racial and ethnic minorities, women, older adults, the LGBTQI+ community, and disabled people, and it emphasizes the centrality of lowering prescription drug costs to advancing health equity.
Click here to read the amicus brief.