A consumer advocacy group continued its push this week to drum up support for legislation to establish a state board to regulate the price of many prescription drugs in Illinois.
Citizen Action/Illinois, along with other groups, convened a town hall meeting in Rockford Tuesday – the fifth in a series of such meetings the group has held since last spring – to push for passage of House Bill 4472, which would establish a Health Care Availability and Access Board.
That five-member board, appointed by the governor, would have authority to set caps on the prices paid by both insurance plans and consumers for certain high-cost drugs.
“Right now, one in three Illinoisans, based on a poll that we commissioned earlier this year, are rationing their medication or skipping pills altogether, meaning that they’re splitting doses in half, or trying to make it stretch, not taking their medication as prescribed by their doctors, simply because they cannot afford it,” said the group’s director Anusha Thotakura.
Joining Thotakura Tuesday were Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, who represents the 17th Congressional District that includes Rockford, state Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, and Dr. Ram Krishnamoorthi, an internal medicine physician who practices in the Chicago area.
In 2022, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, Congress for the first time gave the Medicare program – the federal health care program for seniors – authority to negotiate prices it pays for certain high-cost drugs. Under HB 4472, those negotiated prices would become the upper payment limit for purchasers outside the Medicare program.
The bill was introduced at the beginning of the 2024 legislative session in January by Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Palatine,. House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, is among its chief co-sponsors.
Read more: Lawmakers introduce bill to create state prescription drug price oversight board
No action was taken on the bill during the spring session and it has not yet been assigned to a substantive committee, but it could come up for consideration during the fall veto session, which begins Nov. 12, or in the spring.
