The Labor and Commerce Subcommittee #1 advanced a slate of health care and insurance bills, including the contested Prescription Drug Affordability Board (HB483), which drew heavy opposition from PhRMA, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and patient groups before being reported and referred to Appropriations; the subcommittee also tabled HB986 on fire and rescue funding 6-3 after opponents argued it would raise insurance premiums.
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Chris White (PhRMA) argued the UPL 'has not been a provision that has worked in any other state' and that New Hampshire 'actually repealed their prescription Drug Affordability board.' Rena Hicks (Freedom Virginia) countered that the Colorado PDAB is 'objectively working,' citing a projected $30 million in annual savings from the Enbrel UPL alone. Delegate Delaney argued no state has done exactly what Virginia proposes and that the bill is modeled on the federal Inflation Reduction Act precedent. Mike Egan (Rare Access Action Project) stated patients in Colorado are already seeing 'non-therapeutic switching' with costs equal to or more than the original product and asked the committee to move the bill to a study committee.
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“I can make a diagnosis of cervical cancer in probably two days. This referral lab took about three weeks. And so within that timeframe, the patient's cancer was very aggressive. It advanced and it spread beyond her cervix, which meant she had a totally different treatment plan and outcome.”
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Sign in to subscribeAll right, well, bring the meeting to order. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to labor and Commerce Subcommittee 1, also known as Insurance and Financial Institutions, if you don't remember the numbers. Okay, before we get started today, I just wanted to give a quick reminder to folks that if I can borrow from one of my dear delegates, Delegate Simon, we are running out of time. We have two meetings left after this week to present bills. So after today, we will not be doing. We will not be taking any more bills by for the day. We really need to make sure we have enough time in subcommittee to work through the bills so that we can get it up to full before crossover. So having said that, I do have some bills to take by for the day. We are going to take by at the request of the patron, HB476 from Delegate Watts to take that by for the day, as well as HB190 from delegate converse Fowlers. And at the request of the patron, Delegate Leftwich, we are going to actually strike HB725. So moved and thank you. It's been moved and second properly seconded. HP…
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