Former Congressman Joe Cunningham on What Would It Take to Lower Prescription Drug Costs?

Let's delve into that a little bit because you already alluded to the most favored nation pricing.

Put that into plain English.

Whose price do we match and who qualifies for that?

The whole idea behind most favored nation and the pricing policy, it benchmarks US prices against the prices that manufacturers have agreed to in other countries like Germany and Japan and Canada.

And so under this framework, the U.S. prices would be tied to the lowest price available in what's called Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD.

It just rolls off the tongue.

Any of those OECD countries with a GDP per capita of at least 60% of the U.S. And so by tying that, it helps ensure that Americans aren't paying more than patients in other comparable countries.

And so if codified in the law, and I mentioned this earlier about the bill that Ro Khanna, my friend from California, introduced as co-sponsoring, if that was codified, that policy would apply to all Americans, not just those on Medicare or Medicaid, but the 80% of the country in the private sector.

Wow.

And you've actually done polling.

The organization, I should say, has done polling, and it's got support.

There's like an 87% support for international price matching, 81% for patent reform, and 88% for matching drug ad spending rebates.

So you made the choice to become a part of this organization for a reason.

So what stands out to you about the agreement across party lines.

Because like you said, this is a bipartisan issue.

Yeah, I mean, this is one of those kitchen table issues that is a slam dunk.

If I'm running for office or I'm running for reelection and this poll comes across my desk and shows something, it has just such glaring high positives, that's a campaign issue that I'm going to include in my stump speeches, something that I'm going to run on, particularly if, you know, your opponent is, you know, either take a lot of money from pharmaceutical or has been reluctant to attack them or not sponsored some of these bills that will directly help Americans like the Global Fairness and Drug Pricing Act and a lot of people I know I'm trying to stay focused here, but I'm going to sidestep again.

A lot of people listen to podcasts like this or listen to radio shows or at home think, okay, that's great, but what can I do? And the truth is, if you're sitting there, you're listening and you're wondering, okay, I wonder if my member of Congress is co-sponsoring this bill on the most favored nation.

You pick up the phone, you can email them, ask them if they're co-sponsoring or supporting the Global Fairness and Drug Pricing Act.

I can tell you as a former member, when I flew up to D.C., I get into the office.

One of the first things I did meet my staff, I had a readout of all the emails, all the phone calls that came from within district.

And this kind of helped me keep my finger on the pulse as to what's important to them.

And so if people feel like, well, I don't know if the member actually listens to those phone calls or emails, I can tell you that those things trickle up and they make a difference because it's telling them what the attitude and sentiment is of the constituents.

So that's something that everyone can do.

Everyone listening can do.