Council for Aging recommends creation of state drug affordability board

The Commonwealth Council for Aging announced its support for the creation of a Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) in the 2023 legislative session.

The PDAB, according to a press release, would serve as a watchdog organization to establish fair costs for every day medications and ensure that fewer Virginians are forced to choose between their health and basic necessities of life.

The council is a state advisory board that examines the needs of older Virginians and caregivers, and determines ways in which Virginia’s government can most effectively and efficiently assist them in their needs. The board would set Upper Payment Limits on medication costs among state licensed entities.

“In 2017, 23 percent of Virginians stopped taking medications as prescribed due to cost,” the council wrote in its agenda on September 28. “Between 2015 and 2019, the average increase in the annual cost of prescription drugs rose by 26.3 percent, while the average income in Virginia increased by only 16.7 percent. This proposal would establish the Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board to protect Virginia residents, state and local governments, commercial health plans, health care providers, pharmacies licensed in the Commonwealth, and other stakeholders from the high costs of prescription drug products.”

In the last session, Sen. Chap Peterson of South Dakota introduced a bill to establish a PDAB, which would consist of small, independent health care experts who would evaluate the affordability of a select number of highly expensive prescription medications. Earlier this year, a Mason-Dixon pill revealed that 82 percent of Virginians support the establishment of a PDAB. Fifty-six percent of Virginians have been affected by the rising cost of medicine.

“Too many older Virginians are forced to cut back or completely stop taking medications they need simply because of cost,” AARP Virginia State Director Jim Dau said in the press release. “The Council’s support for a prescription drug affordability board is a message to lawmakers that something can — and must — be done to help.”

If passed in 2023, Virginia will join a number of states in recent years that established PDABs. Maryland was the first in 2019.