DENVER — In a first-in-the-nation step, a Colorado board is considering setting a maximum cost for an “unaffordable” medication. But some lawmakers are trying to reel back the board’s power.
Expensive prescription drugs “are having a huge impact on our premiums, co-pays, every single health care cost for every single consumer,” she said. The Colorado senators sponsoring the bill say it would ensure people with rare diseases continue having access to treatment. They argue price caps on orphan drugs could push pharmaceutical manufacturers to stop selling those drugs in Colorado. Senators were expected to discuss the bill this month, but it has been pushed ahead twice into future meetings.
The medication currently under review by the board, Enbrel, can cost patients and their insurance companies more than $46,000 a year. It is considered an orphan drug, so the board wouldn’t have been able to consider a price cap if the newly introduced bill had already passed. "At 12 I was begging my parents to allow me to skip school because I had been going through years and years of pejorative statements about my polka dot legs,” she said. The condition pushed her to pick at her skin and consider self-harm.