State officials and advocates for Connecticut patients gathered in a crowded Hartford pharmacy last week to celebrate a new state law, intended to reduce the cost of prescription medication through a series of recommendations from a coalition of experts, legislators and providers.
The Wednesday event at Arrow Pharmacy served to mark the signing of House Bill 7192, a wide-ranging proposal that incorporated the recommendations of a bipartisan Prescription Drug Task Force. The bill was adopted with overwhelming support from the General Assembly during the legislative session that ended in June.
Sen. Matt Lesser, a Middletown Democrat who co-chaired the task force, said the proposal was part of a broader effort to tackle affordability issues in Connecticut.
“There is no bigger cost-of-living issue out there than the price of prescription drugs,” Lesser said. He pointed to an Office of Health Strategy report, which found that drug costs were the fastest growing expense in health care. “At a time when the federal government is cutting support for our schools and cutting support for our Medicaid program, we are seeing double-digit increases year after year in prescription drug costs.”
The legislation takes steps to reduce prices through a program to import low-cost drugs from Canada, improving transparency around pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and exploring the in-state production of vital medications. It also seeks federal cooperation on the generic manufacture of expensive GLP-1 weight loss drugs.
Supporters said the changes are intended to ease the financial burden that prescription drugs place on patients throughout Connecticut.
Among the provisions is a directive to the Department of Social Services to work with federal agencies to pursue generic production of GLP-1 drugs. These widely used medications for diabetes and weight loss have been unaffordable for many patients. The new law makes Connecticut the first state in the country to explore this avenue for lower-cost alternatives to the high-demand medications.
Other sections of the bill focus on PBMs, intermediaries between drug manufacturers and insurance companies. The law imposes a duty of good faith and fair dealing on PBMs and mandates the disclosure of any financial arrangements or conflicts of interest.
The new law contains other provisions intended to protect consumers. For instance, the statute ensures that spending on prescriptions counts toward insurance deductibles even if the drugs were purchased out-of-pocket or fall outside a plan’s preferred list.
The law calls for the Department of Economic and Community Development to address supply chain issues by supporting efforts to move prescription drug production to Connecticut. It also directs the state to explore bulk purchasing options and leverage prices negotiated by Medicare.
David Flaherty, Arrow’s pharmacy manager, said rising drug costs had impacted some patients’ ability to access care and said he was encouraged by efforts to make prescriptions more affordable.
“Anything we can do to get lower prices for our patients in our communities is definitely welcome,” he said.
