CBS19, NEWS STAFF

Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger says that everywhere she goes, people are telling her about how bad the prices for prescription medication are.

This comes after the U.S. Senate reviewed a bill that will allow Medicare to negotiate the prices of certain expensive drugs. It’s under review in order to determine whether or not the bill would impact government spending.

“These reforms would drive costs down for Virginia seniors, but they would also save the government billions of dollars,” said Spanberger.

“These are provisions that we have been fighting for, for decades,” said Jim Dau, the director of AARP Virginia. “They should have been implemented years and years ago. You know, we cannot let that be the reason we stop this progress. It might be legitimately a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lower the cost of prescription drugs through the system.”

Additionally, Dau says drugs have not been able to avoid inflation. He gives an example by using the price of milk.

He says that if that cost had gone up at the same rate as prescription drugs between 2006 and 2020, milk would cost more than $13 a gallon now.

Currently, the bill doesn’t have support from all of the Democrats in the Senate. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) thinks that the bill is weak because it wouldn’t make a meaningful impact until 2026.

It is still not clear if the bill will be able to pass through the Senate.