Senate Approves Sinema-Backed Bill Lowering Drug Prices

Targeted News Service (Press Releases)  December 11, 2019 

The U.S. Senate approved the bipartisan Over-the-Counter Monograph Safety, Innovation, and Reform Act, sponsored by Republican Senator Johnny Isakson (Ga.) and cosponsored by Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema. The Senators' bipartisan bill reforms regulations for over-the-counter medicines, increasing competition and lowering the cost of over-the-counter medicines for Arizonans.

"Eliminating barriers for over-the-counter medicines will increase competition and help make health care more affordable for Arizona families," said Sinema.

The current system used by the Food and Drug Administration to regulate over-the-counter medicines was implemented in 1972, and while modern medicine is constantly improving, the regulatory system remains outdated. The bipartisan Over-the-Counter Monograph Safety, Innovation, and Reform Act streamlines FDA regulations allowing drug makers to bring updated or brand new over-the-counter medicines to market sooner, helping lower the cost of drug prices while providing options to Arizonans.

Sinema is focused on making health care more affordable and protecting health care coverage for all Arizonans. Earlier this year she cosponsored the No Junk Plans Act to stop insurance companies from offering short-term plans that don't protect people with pre-existing conditions. Sinema also backed Senate Resolutions which would repeal regulations that undermine protections for.

Sinema led the effort to repeal the Health Insurance Tax. She championed in the U.S. House and the Senate legislation to repeal the HIT, which is a direct tax on health insurance issuers providing coverage to individuals, seniors, families, and businesses.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, this tax is passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums. Sinema is also a cosponsor of the Protect Medical Innovation Act, which permanently repeals the medical device tax, and the Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act to repeal a tax on employer-sponsored health plans.

The Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act would repeal an onerous 40 percent tax on employer-sponsored health plans that would raise premiums for hard-working Arizonans who get their health insurance through work.

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