Legislative Update - Protect Medicaid, Not Millionaires

Dear Neighbors,

There’s no shortage of alarming decisions coming from the Trump administration, but with Congressional Republicans working with the President and his billionaires buddies to cut Medicaid to fund tax breaks for the wealthy, we can’t afford to be passive in our response.

Medicaid is the largest single source of health insurance in Minnesota, serving senior citizens, children, families, and people with disabilities - and our neighbors who rely on Medicaid to live are scared at what they see happening at the federal level. 

In response, this week I joined my DFL colleagues and Medicaid advocates to introduce the “Protect Medicaid, Not Millionaires” Act. Our plan calls for millionaires (that are about to get a Trump tax cut they do not need) to pay a slice of it in order to protect the essential health care that our neighbors like Judy, Raven, and thousands of Minnesotans depend on every day.

Judy and Raven joined us at our press conference announcing this plan, which you can watch a clip of here.

This is our plan to save Medicaid, and I hope my Republican colleagues at the state level produce their own. Like many of the damaging Trump policies, they’d rather stick their heads in the sand and pretend it’s not happening, but we simply can’t ignore the threat of live-saving health care being stripped from thousands of Minnesotans.
 

Prescription Drug Affordability 

Over the years, I’ve worked on several bills aimed at making prescription drugs more affordable, and I wanted to provide a spotlight to some of the legislation my colleagues are working on this session.

For too long, drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBM), and health plans have taken advantage of flaws in federal drug policy to squeeze consumers for ever-increasing amounts of profit. I’m happy to say the DFL is pushing three bills specifically crafted to target the strategies keeping cheap and affordable drugs out of the hands of Minnesotans:

• HF 1652 would prohibit a health plan from forcing patients to switch drugs in the middle of the year because they’re now getting a bigger rebate from the manufacturer of a competitive drug. If a patient and a doctor find a drug that works, they should be allowed to stick with that drug for the rest of the plan year.
• HF 1075 says that health plans and PBMs must use the rebates that they received when patients bought their drug to buy down their price at the pharmacy counter in the form of a “Point of Sale Rebate.” This will ensure these rebates are being used to make expensive life-saving drugs more affordable to the patients who need them.
• HF 1076 is an innovative approach not yet adopted by any other state. It requires PBMs and health plans to include the low-price drugs in their formularies and construct their formularies so that the drugs with the lowest prices for the patient (rather than the drug generating the biggest rebates to the insurance company) receive the best placement in their formularies. The goal of this legislation is to redirect competition away from rebates towards lower prices.

If these were passed into law, you would see a significant decrease in the price of the drugs you rely on. I’ll be sure to keep pushing for their passage and let you know of any progress!
 

Town Hall Recap

Thank you to everyone that came out to join us for this week’s Town Hall! Rep. Coulter and I had a lively discussion with our neighbors, largely centered around how all of us together can work alongside our neighbors for a better future. There is so much heart, passion, and kindness in our community. Together, we are stronger!

Regardless of whether you were able to join us on Tuesday, always feel free to touch base on the issues that matter to you and your family. You can reach me at rep.michael.howard@house.mn.gov or 651-296-7158.

In partnership,

 

Michael Howard