Scanlon Ready For 'Busy Session On Drug Prices, Health Care'

HARTFORD, CT — Rep. Sean Scanlon, (D-Branford, Guilford) the House chairman of the Insurance and Real Estate committee, said in a press release that he is "preparing for a busy session on drug prices and health care cost reduction" when the legislative session begins on Wednesday.

"Improving our health care system and lowering cost is my number one priority each year as chair and I'm excited to get back to work this week on some big bills that I believe will make a difference to the people I represent and this state," Scanlon said.

This is Scanlon's fourth session as chair of Insurance and Real Estate committee. In the last few years, Scanlon has become one of the leading voices on health care at the State Capitol.
Major bills of his signed into law during that time include Connecticut's first prescription drug price transparency law, protections for people with pre-existing conditions, legislation requiring mental health to be treated the same as physical health, removing out-of-pocket expenses for breast ultrasounds and mammograms and many more.

Scanlon: On Drug Prices

Scanlon said the high cost of prescription drugs is something he hears about nearly every day and has been a big focus of his during his time as Insurance chair.

In 2018, Scanlon worked with State Comptroller Kevin Lembo to pass Connecticut's first prescription drug price transparency law. Thanks to this law and starting this year, drug companies will now have to justify large price increases over certain thresholds and provide the state with previously unreleased data concerning cost that will help consumers understand what drives price increases.

The bill also requires pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) - the middlemen between drug companies and insurance companies who determine what drugs your insurance covers - to disclose what percentage of rebates they are keeping for themselves and what percentage they are passing along to the consumer.

"Our transparency law is going to give us a lot of great information and I believe it will apply some much-needed public pressure on companies to lower prices but we can't sit back and wait for that to happen which is why I'm working on legislation to directly lower costs," Scanlon said.

His bill allowing Connecticut to import safe and cheap drugs from Canada passed the House 112-28 last year but did not come up for a vote in the Senate before the session ended. Scanlon said bringing the importation bill back along with a bill capping the cost of insulin are his two drug priorities for 2020.

"According to AARP, importing drugs from Canada will save the average Connecticut resident between 35-55% on their drugs," Scanlon said. "This is a no-brainer."

On insulin, Scanlon said he has heard from constituents who struggle to afford the life-saving drug and even some who ration their insulin. Scanlon's bill will cap the cost of insulin at $50 per month, allow pharmacists to provide emergency doses of insulin to patients and set up a pool of money for uninsured and under-insured diabetics to be able to receive insulin.

"No one should have to choose between eating and taking the medicine they need to survive and, thanks to this law, no one will have to," Scanlon said.

Scanlon On Cost Containment

Scanlon has been working with his committee co-chair Sen. Matt Lesser (D-Middletown), committee ranking member Sen. Kevin Kelly (R-Stratford) and Governor Lamont's office on major legislation to lower overall health care costs.

"There is no silver bullet, one-size-fits-all bill that can tackle cost at one time; it has to be a cumulative effort of good legislation over time," Scanlon said.

The group's legislation will feature two main components: establishing a health care cost benchmark and setting up a reinsurance pool.

The benchmark will, for the first time, develop annual healthcare cost growth goals for calendar years 2021-2025 that health care stakeholders (insurance companies, hospitals, drug companies, etc) are challenged to meet. A similar program instituted in Massachusetts has saved consumers there over $5 billion since 2013.

The plan also sets targets for increased primary care spending as a percentage of total healthcare spending to reach 10 percent by 2025 given our critical shortage of primary care medicine.

In addition to the benchmark, the legislation will create a reinsurance fund that will drive down costs for all consumers by offsetting the cost of the most expensive claims.

"The main reason people's insurance goes up, especially on small group plans, is because the administrative assistant gets diagnosed with cancer or the foreman has a terrible car accident and suddenly everyone at the company's premiums go up," Scanlon said.

"By utilizing a reinsurance pool, the state can step in and actually offset those most-expensive claims and therefore prevent big premium hikes and, in many cases around the country, lower premiums."

Scanlon said he was happy to be working across the aisle on these reforms.

"At a time when partisanship is through the roof and Washington is stuck in gridlock, I'm glad to be working across the aisle and proving that despite what you see on the nightly news or on Facebook that politicians with opposing beliefs can still work together to get stuff done," Scanlon said.