MEMO: Impact of H.R. 6166 on Massachusetts Economy and Patients
Executive Summary: The newly introduced Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act1 is framed as a “win” for patients, but it would provide minimal real savings at the pharmacy counter. Instead, it would stall progress on life-saving new cures, increase long-term health spending, and severely weaken Massachusetts’ world-leading life sciences bioeconomy.
While the bill includes helpful out-of-pocket (OOP) caps, it ties them to an expansion of government price-setting that weakens incentives for high-risk medical R&D and harms innovation.
Patient affordability can be improved without damaging innovation, by pursuing reforms that restore new drug R&D incentives and ensure that if a doctor prescribes a treatment and the insurer authorizes it, it is affordable to the patient at low or no OOP cost.
The better path forward: 1) support the ACA Copay CAP Act, 2) support the EPIC Act, 3) support comprehensive PBM reform, 4) modernize prior authorization, and 5) support smart incentives focused on targeted affordability reforms – not price controls.