WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued the following statement on the need to include major prescription drug savings and important components of health care in the American Families Plan:
“As we consider the critical investments we must make in this next jobs and families plan, we must ensure that we invest in the health of people across America. Republicans worked tirelessly to strip health care away from millions of people over the past four years. Then, the horrors of COVID-19 and the economic crisis it caused exposed how truly dysfunctional our system is. Tens of millions of people lost their jobs and their health care. Untold numbers of Americans have been bankrupted by medical debt. And we still pay more than twice as much for prescription medications than other wealthy countries.
“Voters delivered us governing majorities and now we must deliver for them on health care policies that are not only urgent but wildly popular. We must immediately lower the cost of prescription drugs and use the massive savings from this to lower Medicare’s eligibility age and improve benefits while at the same time ensuring the permanent affordability of health plans obtained through the Affordable Care Act. These necessary policies that are supported by large bipartisan majorities of the American people enjoy the strong support of our Democratic Caucus, and can be accomplished simultaneously.
“What the American Rescue Plan taught us is that American people of all parties support us when we enact bold, populist policies that deliver for them. I urge the President to include these important components of health care in the American Families Plan.”
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