Two Very Different Approaches to Lowering the Cost of Prescription Drugs Are They Enough? A MAC members are all too familiar with the cost of their prescription medications. They have consistently voiced their concern over these costs and related how they must balance expenses to afford their medicine, particularly in retirement. This concern has placed a priority on working to lower drug costs for AMAC’s advocacy affiliate, AMAC Action. There are currently two significant bills being promoted in the 117 th Congress that intend to lower drug costs for Americans. The Demo-crats are supporting H.R. 3, the Elijah Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, while Republicans are backing H.R. 19, the Lower Costs, More Cures 36 • AMAC Magazine Act. These two bills offer insight into the ideological differences that influ-ence the approach the two parties take in their attempts to resolve the drug pricing issue. price controls that are utilized in socialized medicine systems. It would implement a pricing scheme known as international reference pricing for the Medicare program. According to Susan Peschin, president and CEO of the Alliance for Aging Research, and Duane Schulthess, Managing Director of Vital Trans-formation, writing for STATNews. com, international reference pricing is a flawed concept that should be avoided. It uses a metric that assigns “a value to the patient population a treatment is intended for.” But “if a therapy treats a condition for a group that is sicker, older, or includes people with disabilities, or is focused on a population that has historically faced continued on page 38 the democrat approach More Taxes and Price Controls Representative Frank Pallone (D NJ-06) resurrected legislation from a previous Congress and reintroduced H.R. 3, the Elijah Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act. This bill would increase the government’s role in the drug supply chain and import foreign