Connecticut, Massachusetts governors tout prescription pricing legislation

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday promoted legislation in their states that aims to reduce drug costs as each pushed back against opposition from pharmaceutical companies.

The two chief executives — Lamont, a Democrat, and Baker, a Republican — appeared together on an online news conference to talk up efforts to hold the line on rising prescription costs.

“We both have very similar proposals that we believe would help protect consumers and increase accountability for drug manufacturers,” Baker said.

Baker and Lamont have proposed legislation that would impose a penalty if the drug price increase is greater than the rate of inflation plus 2%. In both states, the penalty would be equal to 80% of the increase above the rate of inflation plus 2% in a year.

The Lamont administration hopes pharmaceutical companies will limit price increases and avoid a fine, said Vicki Veltri, executive director of the state’s Office of Health Strategy. Penalties assessed will be used to help individuals afford health insurance.

Baker said the work by biotech companies is “critically important, not just because they provide a lot of jobs, but because they solve a lot of problems.” He praised the rapid success of pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines against COVID-19.

However, numerous drugs have been on the market for years or decades and have paid for the investment many times over, he and Lamont said. Pharmaceuticals often are subject to “very significant increases in their list price that go way beyond anything that looks like inflation,” Baker said.

Boehringer Ingelheim said a price cap “oversimplifies an extremely complicated health care payment model by focusing only on the costs of prescription drugs and not addressing systemic inefficiencies.”

The price set by a pharmaceutical company is typically controlled by health insurance plans through deductibles, co-pays and other cost-sharing that “has little to do with what’s paid by a patient at the pharmacy counter,” the pharmaceutical company said.

Priscilla VanderVeer, vice president of public affairs at industry group PhRMA, said government setting prices on medicines could slow innovation and make it harder for patients to get medicines.

“Rather than lowering out-ofpocket costs by fixing the system that forces many patients to pay more for their medicines than their insurer, these governors are trying to make Connecticut a test case for a dangerous and misguided proposal that has failed to get support in Massachusetts several times,” she said.

Jay Gironimi, a Groton resident who has cystic fibrosis, said prescription medication is miraculous, but increasingly costly, at thousands of dollars a month.

“I shouldn’t be forced to decide between financial ruin and detrimental mental health outcomes. It’s why we need reforms now,” he said.