Illinois group pushes drug pricing bill opposed by business groups

By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – An effort is underway to work at controlling prescription drug prices in Illinois, but there is a stack of industry opposition.

Citizen Action Illinois, a progressive policy and political coalition, is pushing for measures at the statehouse to establish a prescription drug affordability board, or PDAB.

“Creating a prescription drug affordability board in Illinois can save over $190 million in just one year for only the first 10 drugs Medicare has negotiated,” said Citizen Action Illinois policy manager Julia Warheit.

Warheit said the PDAB would adopt the federal Medicare maximum fair price as the statewide upper limit, extending those savings to consumers who are not on Medicaid.

“When Medicare negotiates a lower price, Illinois gets that lower price, too. It’s that simple,” she said during a news conference in Springfield Tuesday.

In Colorado, Julia Warheit said such a board is saving consumers $32 million in one year alone for one particular drug.

“Colorado is proving that states don’t have to be victims of a national market,” Warheit said. “We can set our own guardrails, and we need this now more than ever with federal health care cuts on the horizon for 2026.”

AARP Illinois Senior Associate State Director Lori Hendren said consensus is growing to approve either Illinois House Bill 1443 or Senate Bill 66.

“Illinois 50 plus are counting on us, especially now today, to take action,” Hendren said. “That is why AARP Illinois is calling on lawmakers to pass this legislation that establishes a strong and effective PDAB.”

Listed opponents of the measures include BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, and several other medical associations and foundations.

“Prescription drug boards put unelected state bureaucrats—many with little to no clinical experience—between patients and their doctors and risk reducing access to critical treatments,” PhRMA spokesman Tom Wilbur said in an email statement to The Center Square. “These boards often fail to address the real drivers of patient costs, such as insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. Instead, the focus should be on safeguarding patient access and affordability from the abusive practices of these middlemen.”