$10 Billion Annual Tax Windfall Headed to 20 Major Health Care Companies, McCaskill-backed Report Details
Press Release
In earnings calls and documents, 20 of the top 37 Fortune 500 health care companies--including pharmaceutical and health insurance companies-- have detailed annual shareholder savings of $10 billion a year, adding up to an approximate $100 billion corporate windfall over ten years from last year's tax bill, according to a Senate Finance Committee report backed by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill--all while prescription drug costs for Missourians continue to rise.
"While they jack up the price of prescription drug and emergency care for Missourians, the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries have turned right around and passed along tens of billions in savings from the tax bill to their shareholders and executives," McCaskill said. "I was eager to support bipartisan tax reform that would deliver relief to Missouri's working and middle class families. But we've now heard it straight from the horse's mouth--that relief is coming in the form of a massive windfall to these companies, not the folks who need it most."
McCaskill has made tackling rising healthcare and prescription drug costs a top priority in the Senate. She recently released a report as part of her role leading the Senate's top oversight committee that found that many of the most popular brand-name drugs are increasing at ten times the cost of inflation. During McCaskill's time as the top Democrat on the Senate Special Committee on Aging, she joined Republican Committee Chairman Susan Collins to launch an in-depth investigation into prescription drug price increases, and President Trump signing into law the Senators' bipartisan legislation to increase competition for generic drugs and help lower prescription costs.
McCaskill has introduced legislation to end taxpayer subsidies pharmaceutical companies receive for the billions of dollars they spend on prescription drug advertising each year, which currently is fully tax-deductible. McCaskill also introduced a bipartisan bill to prohibit "pharmacy gag clauses" that lead to consumers needlessly overpaying for prescription drugs. In February, healthcare and emergency room costs in Missouri and across the country were the focus of a roundtable discussion with McCaskill, ER doctors, patient advocates, and community health workers in Kansas City.
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