As part of a swing through Southeast Iowa, Senator Chuck Grassley, made a stop in Burlington Tuesday afternoon at the Greater Burlington Partnership.
The meet and greet was closed to the public, and followed an appearance by Grassley in Fort Madison for a town hall meeting at city hall in that community.
Grassley said the impact of the Trump administration’s imposed tariff’s on remains to be seen.
“If Trump is successful in negotiating these tariffs down, that is really going to help us because we get 20% of our farm income from trade,” Grassley said.
He added that the negative impact will be seen in retaliatory tariffs imposed by China on ag exports from Iowa.
“I hope he is successful,” Grassley said.
Turning to his legislative priorities, Grassley said he is sponsoring a bill aimed at shedding light on what pharmacy benefit managers do, which he said will have an impact on the cost of prescription drugs.
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) are companies that manage prescription drug benefits for health insurance plans, large employers, and other payers. They act as intermediaries between drug manufacturers, pharmacies, and insurers, negotiating prices, rebates, and coverage terms. PBMs also manage administrative tasks like processing claims and maintaining formularies.
Some say the negotiating power of PBM’s is pricing small, independent pharmacies out of the marketplace.
About the bill he is proposing, Grassley said it would require PBM’s to reveal their operations to the public and “act more responsibly,” Grassley said.
He said in some cases, the PBM will sell pharmaceuticals to it’s own mail-order pharmacy at a lower price than it will sell the same drug to local pharmacies.
“So you can imagine that is unfair competition and that really does hurt the small ones (pharmacies),” Grassley said.
The specific bill Grassley is championing is the PBM Transparency Act.
This bill bans deceptive and unfair pricing schemes, prohibits arbitrary claw backs of payments made to pharmacies, and requires PBMs to report to the FTC on how much money they make through spread pricing and pharmacy fees. The bill falls within the jurisdiction of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), is one on a list of co-sponsors of the bill.
