S1, E9- Build Back Better: Will Congressional Action Help Patients?

One Senator has held up the passage of President Biden’s social spending and climate policy bill, known as Build Back Better. We examine how the current bill would help patients and where it stops short.

"It is a major issue for consumers. Every day, patients through no fault of their own are not able to afford their medicines," says Dr. Robert Popovian, Chief Science Policy Officer at the Global Healthy Living Foundation. “And it does cause complications down the road if they're not taking their medicines because of outrageous out-of-pocket costs that they’ll have to pay.”

Some episode highlights:

1:09: Listener review

2:02: How would the Build Back Better plan help patients and the healthcare industry?

3:42: What this bill would and wouldn’t do to help the average patient

4:23: “Patients really care about what they pay out of their pocket when they show up to the pharmacy counter and this legislation does not address”

5:50: People react to funding research and development of drugs

7:11: 44% of patients skip filling prescriptions because of their high costs

7:42: How states and the federal government differ in data keeping and transparency

8:14: Priority one should be to contain out-of-pocket costs

9:26: This legislation, as is constructed, will negatively impact research and development

11:36: Robert shares his final thoughts on this legislation

Contact our hosts:

Dr. Robert Popovian, Chief Science Policy Officer at GHLF: [email protected]

Conner Mertens, Patient Advocate and Community Outreach Manager at GHLF: [email protected]

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