CHAIN 2022 ACTION AGENDA
In 2022, CHAIN (Colorado Health Advocacy & Information Network) will expand efforts and outreach for finding common ground on common sense health care solutions. Our key action items include:
SUPPORT HEALTHCARE CONSUMER RIGHTS
Unfair and uncompetitive practices limit patient care and drive-up healthcare costs. CHAIN will work to reform or curtail these and other strategies that some healthcare entities use for their benefit but not necessarily for patients:
- Stem the unchecked payment of ‘rebates’ by drug makers to PBMs and insurance companies in order to gain approval for drugs to be covered and distributed. Can Rebate Reform Help Consumers? – CHAIN (betterhealthcareco.org)
- Oppose the growing misuse of prior authorization by health insurance providers to deny critically needed care.
- Push back on the proliferation of high deductible health plans and faltering of traditional health insurance to provide adequate coverage.
- End the indefensible practice used by insurance companies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) to disallow drug maker assistance coupons from counting towards patient deductibles and out-of-pocket spending (called a co-pay accumulator). https://infusioncenter.org/understanding-copay-accumulators-who-really-benefits/
PROMOTE PRIVATE INNOVATION OVER GOVERMENT INTERVENTION
The Coronavirus vaccine and overall response proved indisputably that American innovation and technology leads the world. Massive and ill-conceived takeovers of parts of the American healthcare system threaten that innovation. CHAIN will fight to protect America’s scientific leadership and push back on the kinds of government overreach that threaten the very lifeblood of cures and treatments, including:
- Systemic healthcare takeover proposals such as single-payer insurance plans or drug-price control mechanisms;
- Policies such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s HB 1 or the Medicare drug negotiation provisions in the Building a Better America Act that substitutes open competition for socialized health care policies;
- Nationalized drug pricing programs – as in Canada, Britain and other countries – that compel biotech companies to sell at below market costs which dampens life-saving innovation and compromises patient access;
- Push for alternative approaches like the Reduced Costs and Continued Cares Act (RCCCA) from moderate Congressional democrats, the sensible alternative to H.R. 3 that is designed to lower costs without trampling on American innovation.
FOSTER POLICY ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY
Too often, well-intended health care policies end up health care travesties for the very people the policies are intended to help. CHAIN will highlight the successes and failures in government healthcare initiatives and endeavor to spotlight practices already benefiting patients:
- Restore transparency and accountability to the $29b federal 340B drug program, designed to help underserved patients but now has veered off course into filling the coffers of healthcare providers.
- Facilitate conversations and awareness around practices such as value-based pricing, which bases the cost of prescription drugs on outcomes delivered.
- Highlight emerging practices such as Pfizer’s recently enacted pledge to refund patients if their new lung cancer drug does not perform as intended.
- Call “time out” on proposals to import drugs from Canada or other nations, a policy that has cost Coloradans $2m since passage in 2020 and wasted millions more in federal resources while producing nothing in the way of savings for consumers.
- Continue speaking out against Colorado’s Prescription Drug Affordability board (PDAB) — an unproven and costly policy that experts say will compromise access to life saving medicines.
HIGHLIGHT SCIENTIFIC & POLICY BREAKTHROUGHS
Coloradans can rightfully take pride in a burgeoning bioscience community that creates scientific breakthroughs in health care. Here and across the country, world-leading American scientists work to bring cures and treatments for our most devastating diseases. Simultaneously, policy experts continue to research ways to provide better health care with increasing cost of compromising access. CHAIN joins other science and research-based organizations supporting these efforts to:
- Advance the use of biosimilar drugs to lower the overall cost and spend on prescription medicines. Can Rebate Reform Help Consumers? – CHAIN (betterhealthcareco.org)
- Facilitate conversations and awareness around practices such as value-based pricing, which bases the cost of prescription drugs on outcomes delivered.
- Highlight emerging practices such as Pfizer’s recently enacted pledge to refund patients if their new lung cancer drug does not perform as intended.