(Washington, D.C.) — Today, the House of Representatives passed a government funding bill that includes unrelated new mandates on employers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) that would have costly consequences for American families. This policy will drive drug prices higher, eliminate employer choice, and discourage competition in the PBM market.

In response, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) President and CEO David Marin released the following statement:

“The House has just voted to make health care more expensive. It has sided with Big Pharma over American families facing a painful affordability challenge. By forcing American employers into a one-size-fits all system, drugmakers are being given even more power to inflate their prices. These mandates undermine President Trump’s work to make drugs more affordable, and the Senate should reject them.

“This policy is a gift to the pharmaceutical industry which has long sought to tie the hands of PBMs. That’s because PBMs exist to fight back against drugmakers’ egregiously high prices. American employers and families will now pay the price for this intrusion into the private market. It will mean fewer ways for employers to drive down drug costs and ultimately lead to higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs for their workers. PBMs are the only ones in the drug supply chain on the side of affordability, and they are already working with employers to innovate their models to provide greater transparency and lower drug costs. The policy passed today is both harmful to that progress and wholly unnecessary.

“If the Senate does not reject this policy, lawmakers will come to regret these costly mandates. They must stop being distracted by the pharmaceutical industry’s diversions. Congress must instead focus on the exorbitant prices charged by drugmakers and the way they game the system to keep them high. Our industry is committed to being a part of the affordability solution, and today’s vote moves our health care system in the wrong direction.”