BOSTON — With the high cost of prescription drugs frequently flagged as an untenable driver of health care spending and an impediment to quality care, Senate leaders have come up with an ambitious plan they believe will help drive down the cost of expensive and unfairly priced drugs.
Sen. Cindy Friedman, an Arlington Democrat and the co-chair of the Committee on Health Care Financing, plans to unveil the bill at a press conference at the State House on Thursday, and leaders plan to call for a vote on the bill by the full Senate next week, ahead of a planned multi-week recess beginning on Nov. 20.
“We are very, very, very concerned about the cost of medications to consumers,” Friedman said in an interview. “We appreciate that this is a complicated and complex industry, that it is expensive, that there are absolutely real costs. What we’re asking is let’s get some transparency around those costs so we know how we can fix the problem for the consumers.”