Families USA Testimony for House Oversight Subcommittee Hearing on Oral Chemotherapy

On Tuesday, September 15, Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, testifies before the House Committee on Oversight’s Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services at its hearing, “Unequal Treatment: Addressing the Drivers of Unaffordability for Oral Chemotherapy.”

No patient facing a cancer diagnosis should also have to fight a second battle over how to afford their treatment. Families USA supports efforts to increase parity between IV and oral chemotherapy coverage, and Wright argues Congress must go further and address the root causes of high drug prices — including patent gaming and pay-for-delay tactics that keep cheaper generics and biosimilars off the market and expanding Medicare’s drug negotiation program to more drugs and to commercial coverage.

A Families USA poll last month found that 94% of voters say it’s important that Congress and the President act on health care costs, with 74% saying it is very important. They want Congress to address affordability by taking on the drug companies, health insurers, hospitals, or other parts of the industry. Cancer patients deserve more than parity between two unaffordable treatment options — they want and deserve a system where the cost of staying alive doesn’t threaten their family’s financial future.