Prescription price cap plan passes Michigan Senate as Dems decry ‘exploitation’

• Michigan’s Democratic-led Senate approves plan to create Prescription Drug Affordability Board
• Board could cap prescription prices if members determine costs are preventing patients from receiving deeded care
• Pharmaceutical industry and most Republicans oppose plan, which one lawmaker calls a ‘Soviet-style price-fixing scheme’ 

Michigan Democrats are taking another stab at creating a government board intended to rein in prescription drug costs, this time with slightly more Republican support but an uncertain path forward in the GOP-controlled House. 

Bills that could empower state government to cap prices on expensive prescription drugs cleared the Michigan Senate on Thursday, with one Republican joining majority Democrats to support the creation of a Prescription Drug Affordability Board.

Democrats have pushed the measure as a means of directly lowering the cost of expensive medications. Many Republicans, however, have criticized it as an unproven means of meddling in a free market better left untouched. 

“This board is not about stifling innovation. It's about stopping exploitation that is happening now,” said Sen. Sue Shink, D-Northfield Township. 

The legislation would create a five-member board and a separate 21-member council that could review prescription drugs for cost and affordability, and set caps on their cost if they determine the cost of the medication is preventing patients from receiving the treatment they need. 

Private insurers and Medicaid would have to comply with the limits set by the board, which would be appointed by the governor and receive recommendations from a council of stakeholders. 

The pharmaceutical sector remains strongly opposed, with one industry group calling the proposed board “a disaster for patients.” 

The legislation would give “unelected bureaucrats a veto pen over the medicine or the treatments doctors prescribe and patients need,” Stami Turk, the Director of Public Affairs for PhRMA, said in a statement.

Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, called it a “Soviet-style price-fixing scheme” and a “bureaucratic boondoggle” that hasn’t worked in other states.

But supporters see the proposal as an urgently-needed intervention amid rising healthcare costs. 

Related:

• Trump reverses Biden-era drug pricing order. What it means for Michigan
• New for 2025: A cap on drug prices for nearly 2 million older Michiganders
• Michigan Dems aim to cut prescription drug costs with ‘affordability board’

Michiganders “are rationing their medication, skipping doses or going without it altogether” due to high costs, said Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstown Township. 

Minnesota, Colorado, Washington and Maryland have created similar boards with prescription drug price-setting powers. A 2024 review of their boards in the journal Health Affairs found the long-term impacts of those price controls “on benefit design, patient access and innovation are not yet known.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer first called for the creation of a Prescription Drug Affordability Board in an August 2023 speech, and lawmakers introduced a proposal soon after. But the legislation failed to gain traction in the Legislature when Democrats controlled both chambers.

The prior version of the proposal passed the Senate in October 2023 along party lines. Democratic House members said they had “no explanation” why the House never took up the legislation when their party controlled the chamber. Now, however, Republicans control the House.

“Last time, I was persuaded by the idea that the market should determine the cost of (prescription drugs),” said Sen. John Damoose of Harbor Springs, the lone Republican supporter for the package. 

“The more I learned, the more apparent it became that calling the prescription drug market a free market is a total farce.”

Getting the GOP majority in the House to come around appears to be an uphill battle. Democratic legislators in the House said they have yet to convince any Republicans to come forward to support the bills, but have only begun to try.

Speaking with reporters Thursday, House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, called it a “very controversial proposal.”

While Hall said he “supported bipartisan solutions” for lowering drug costs, he referred the Senate package to the Government Operations Committee, a panel where legislation is often sent to die. 

“I think that if Republicans in the House are smart, they will make this bipartisan and negate this as a talking point in the next election cycle,” said Rob Davidson, an emergency physician from West Michigan and former Democratic congressional candidate who supports the legislation.