Skip to main content

Slotkin Votes to Pass Major Legislation to Lower Healthcare and Prescription Drug Prices

May 17, 2019

Bill takes sweeping action to drive down costs, reverse Administration’s actions to chip away at healthcare access

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (MI-08) today voted in favor of a major piece of legislation to lower the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs.

The Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act (H.R. 987) includes bipartisan provisions to help bring generic drugs to market faster, one of the most effective ways to lower prescription drug prices; helps states expand coverage to drive down healthcare costs; and eliminates junk healthcare plans that discriminate against patients with pre-existing conditions.

"This bill is about doing what people of all political backgrounds are demanding of us as their representatives: to pass legislation that lowers the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs," said Slotkin. "This legislation will do a great deal to drive down those costs, and I'm proud to support it."

"This isn't political issue — we have evolved as a nation to agree that no American should go broke because they happen to get sick and that people shouldn't be gouged because they happen to be born with a pre-existing condition."

Last week, Slotkin voted in favor of a bill to protect people with pre-existing conditions (H.R. 986), and gave a powerfulspeech on the House floor in defense of the bill, detailing her mother's struggle to afford health care due to her pre-existing condition.

The Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act is a package of seven bills that would:

  • Lower the skyrocketing price of prescription drugs – with additional actions to make it easier to bring generics to market;
  • Crack down on junk plans – which discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions and do not cover essential benefits; and
  • Reverse the Administration's efforts to chip away at healthcare access – including by helping states to set up their own marketplaces so they can expand coverage and lower costs, reinforcing the Navigator program that helps families enroll in affordable coverage, and restoring funding for outreach and enrollment education efforts.

Today's vote comes two weeks after the Administrationsubmitted a formal request to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act, which would end health insurance for 21 million Americans, including tens of thousands in Michigan's 8th district, and bring us back to a time when people could be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Issues:Healthcare