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UFT Resolutions

Resolution on out-of-control drug prices

UFT Resolutions

WHEREAS, maintenance drugs and/or life-saving drugs may far exceed the financial wherewithal of a patient, and, unlike other nations, the United States does not control the price of drugs sold here, and,

WHEREAS, the rising cost of drug prices in the United States has sparked congressional hearings, and prosecutors at the federal or state level are investigating pharmaceutical companies for their pricing practices, and

WHEREAS, although the federal government is currently prohibited from negotiating drug prices under the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, it uses its bulk purchasing power for veterans and low-income Medicaid beneficiaries, and

WHEREAS, as Congress debates about reducing the deficit and demands health savings, drug costs could be an area of significant savings, and

WHEREAS, recent events have caused us to observe that corporations see only a limitless profit margin for the drugs they sell and justify their prices by insisting that they spend billions on research and development; therefore let it be

RESOLVED that the U.S. government must take the following actions so that the citizens of the United States can afford to pay for necessary treatments:

  1. Congress must give Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices, much like Medicaid and the Veterans Administration, to stabilize the market and establish competition among the drug manufacturers.