Watch Bennet’s Remarks During the Hearing HERE

Denver — Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, celebrated committee passage of the Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability Act, which includes Bennet’s Prescription Drug Supply Chain Pricing Transparency Act to require the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study that would help lawmakers better understand the complex drug pricing supply chain. 

“We need to do this to help lower health care costs for patients and for taxpayers,” said Bennet during the hearing. “We live in the wealthiest country in the world and our seniors are resorting to cutting pills in half...Coloradans tell me they're leaving their prescriptions at the counter because they simply can't afford them. They’re skipping doses, or worse, they're going without the prescriptions they need.”

In his remarks, Bennet highlighted his efforts in the Inflation Reduction Act to require Medicare to negotiate drug prices on behalf of the American people – a policy he first proposed as part of his Medicare-X public option bill. He also urged his colleagues to move forward on other legislation to reduce prescription drug costs for Americans, including to encourage domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing and his bill to increase access to biosimilar drugs to help patients save money. 

“I’ve worked on bringing down drug costs for over a decade, and I think most Americans would agree that this system that we have is needlessly opaque and confusing,” Bennet continued. “With list and out of pocket prices, rebates, administrative fees, it’s no surprise that Americans can’t understand why they have to pay so much for their drugs or who is to blame.” 

Earlier this month, Bennet and U.S. James Lankford (R-Okla.) introduced the Prescription Drug Supply Chain Pricing Transparency Act to require the Government Accountability Office conduct a study to increase transparency in the flawed drug pricing supply chain.