Every Texan has felt it at the pharmacy counter.
You walk in expecting to pick up a routine prescription, only to discover the cost has jumped again. Maybe it is insulin, or an inhaler for your child. Maybe it is arthritis medication your spouse depends on just to get through the day. Whatever the prescription, the result is the same: sticker shock.
Across Texas, families are being squeezed by rising healthcare costs, and prescription drugs are one of the biggest reasons why.
The problem is not hard to identify. Pharmaceutical manufacturers continue raising prices year after year while Texans are left choosing between medications, groceries, rent, and gas. Meanwhile, the companies responsible for setting these prices continue posting enormous profits.
Texas lawmakers now have a real opportunity to do something meaningful about it.
The Texas House Select Committee on Health Care Affordability is examining ways to reduce healthcare costs statewide, and lawmakers should focus their attention on the drug manufacturers driving these price increases in the first place.
Texas already took an important step in 2019 with House Bill 2536, which forced pharmaceutical companies to publicly disclose price increases. Texans deserve credit for leading the country on transparency, but transparency alone does not put money back in consumers’ pockets.
What Texans need now are policies that actually lower prices without hurting access to care.
That is why lawmakers should consider creating a Prescription Drug Affordability Board. These boards review the prices of the most expensive medications and determine whether they are becoming unaffordable for patients and healthcare systems.
Some states have gone even further by allowing these boards to establish Upper Payment Limits, which cap how much can be charged for certain drugs.
Colorado recently became the first state to implement one of these limits, reducing the cost of a rheumatoid arthritis drug that had become outrageously expensive. Other states are following closely behind because the early results show real savings for patients.
Texas should be paying attention.
What lawmakers should not do is pursue policies that make healthcare access worse. Other states have passed legislation that has destabilized pharmacies and threatened closures, especially in rural communities where healthcare options are already limited.
That would be devastating in Texas where, for many, the local pharmacy is often the closest and most accessible healthcare provider available. Seniors rely on pharmacists to help manage multiple prescriptions safely. Veterans depend on neighborhood pharmacies for consistent access to medications. Rural families may drive miles just to reach the nearest pharmacy at all.
If pharmacies disappear, patients will suffer.
That is why any healthcare affordability plan must protect pharmacy access while addressing the true source of rising costs. Texans should not lose trusted local pharmacies because lawmakers targeted the wrong part of the system.
The real issue is simple. Pharmaceutical manufacturers continue raising prices because nobody is stopping them.
Texans believe in accountability. If a company is charging unreasonable prices for lifesaving medications, state leaders have every right to step in and protect consumers.
This does not mean government should take over healthcare. It means government should ensure markets remain fair and functional for the people paying the bills.
Texans work hard for their money. They should not have to fear every trip to the pharmacy counter. And they certainly should not lose access to local care because lawmakers fail to focus on the real problem.
Texas can lower drug prices, protect pharmacies, and lead the nation again on healthcare affordability, but only if lawmakers are willing to confront the pharmaceutical companies driving these costs in the first place.
–
Julia Pierce is a realtor, committee chair for the Dallas County Republican Party, and does business development for the Metroplex Civic and Business Association.