America's Agenda Health Care for All

During the course of 2022, Americas Agenda (AAHCA) continued our ongoing work in building and supporting broad citizen coalitions that unite businesses, labor unions, and other stakeholders around an Americas Agenda-designed strategy to significantly reduce cost of prescription drugs. Americas Agenda: Health Care for All, has worked to advance our mission to assure affordable health care for all Americans in initiatives in a half dozen states over the course of 202. Here, we highlight our work in three states: Colorado, Minnesota, and Ohio. AAHCA advised and supported the efforts in each of these states to educate the public and policy makers about drivers of prescription drug cost increases the fastest growing component of overall health cost increases with the objective of achieving prescription drug savings for state governments, taxpayers, and both public and private sector employment-based health plans. In each of these state efforts, in AAHCA built on the success of our policy initiative in New Jersey, where implementation of the Americas Agenda-designed public policy strategy for creating a dynamically competitive marketplace for pharmacy benefit managers captured $2.52 billion in prescription drug savings over 5 years for state taxpayers and the New Jersey State Employees Health Plan. Our efforts achieved significant advances toward our goal of significant and sustainable reduction in cost of prescription drugs. The following are highlights of our accomplishments in these three states over the course of 2022: In Minnesota, AAHCA organizing and support of a broad coalition of state businesses, labor unions, patient advocates, independent pharmacists, and other stakeholders overcame entrenched opposition to effective implementation of SF 2178, which was enacted with extensive Americas Agenda support the preceding year. The statutory reform has transformed the way pharmacy benefit manager contract proposals are evaluated and pharmacy benefit management services are procured. Americas Agenda provided technical assistance to state legislators on a joint Senate/House oversight committee with responsibility for overseeing the reverse auction process for procurement of prescription drug services for approximately 200,000 state and local government employees and dependents. The outcome of the Americas Agenda-designed initiative was state savings of approximately $65 million per year in spending of state taxpayer funds for public employee prescription drug benefits.In Colorado, AAHCA organizing and support of a broad coalition of labor unions, patient advocates, and other stakeholders overcame a number of obstacles to effective implementation posed by entrenched opponents of the Competitive Pharmacy Benefits Manager Marketplace Act, which was enacted with extensive Americas Agenda support the preceding year. The Colorado statutory reform has transformed the way pharmacy benefit manager contract proposals are evaluated and pharmacy benefit management services are procured in the state. Americas Agenda advocated successfully for direct participation in pharmacy benefit services by representatives of state employees who stand to benefit, along with tax payers and state government, from success of the reforms in reducing prescription drug costs. Americas Agenda provided technical assistance and training to make state employee effective in their role as partners with the State in Colorados reformed pharmacy benefit manager services procurement process.In Ohio, AAHCA organized support from a coalition of patient advocates, labor unions, and other stakeholders behind an innovative approach to reforming the state prescription drug marketplace through a strategy we refer to as Duty of Care, which would limit prescription drug manager practices that exploit perverse prescription drug market incentives to increase, rather than reduce, costs of prescription drugs. Americas Agenda participated in drafting model Duty of Care legislation to serve as a template for introduction in several states. With Americas Agenda support, the concept has been proposed for prospective enactment by the Ohio State legislature.