Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2019

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COX of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today to applaud the inclusion of my bipartisan bill, the Inhaler Coverage and Access Now Act, the I CAN Act, into H.R. 2339, the Protecting American Lungs and Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2020.

The I CAN Act is about commonsense prevention and investing in consistent treatment to avoid expensive care later down the road. Moms and dads shouldn't have to choose between paying their mortgage or paying their rent or buying an inhaler for their kids. No one should have to make that choice. The I CAN Act allows you to access inhalers, whether or not you have reached your deductible. For so many families, this removes a critical cost barrier for the care they need and deserve.

Like so many preventive medicines and procedures, inhalers actually save patients, hospitals, and insurers money by cutting down on hospitalizations and medical emergencies before they start. As we all know, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Today, the annual cost of asthma in the United States is more than $56 billion. Why is that? That is because of the 1.8 million emergency room visits which could have been avoided if people had the inhalers they needed.

But worse yet are the 3,300 deaths from asthma each year. And these deaths were preventable. Let me say that again: These deaths were preventable. And in the richest country in the world, it is an outrage that anyone dies because they cannot get the medicine they need. We need to make treatment accessible, and this bill does just that.

For so many families, our friends and our coworkers, asthma medicine is lifesaving, and many will pay whatever it takes to get the drugs they need.

Naturally, Big Pharma knows this, and they have taken advantage of that. For example, albuterol, one of the oldest asthma medicines, typically costs $50 to $100 per inhaler in the U.S. Less than a decade ago, it was $15. Then the manufacturer made some small changes, repatented it, and raised the price by 600 percent. That is price gouging. And while it might be good for the drug company's bottom lines, it is bad medicine for America.

I represent California's 21st Congressional District in the San Joaquin Valley, which has the worst air basin in the Nation. And to make matters worse, many of our rural communities have faced extreme challenges when accessing asthma care.

For my constituents and for patients across the country with asthma, it was a major priority for me to introduce the I CAN Act, to remove barriers and increase access to inhalers by providing patients with the coverage for inhaler medication.

I want to thank the Ways and Means Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee for taking the necessary action to protect the health of America's children.

We can pass the I CAN Act to make inhalers available to everyone. We can prevent youth tobacco use. We can address the youth e-cigarette epidemic. We can, with our vote today, show we care, and we can act to improve the health of our young people.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2339.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source