ICYMI: Senator Hassan Joins HHS Secretary Becerra to Highlight Efforts to Lower Health Care Costs & Build Health Care Workforce

LEBANON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan joined U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra for a conversation at Dartmouth Health to highlight efforts to lower health care costs, expand access to rural maternity care, and build the health care workforce.

Senator Hassan is working to lower health care and prescription drug costs for Americans. Senator Hassan led successful bipartisan efforts to help eliminate surprise medical billing, which has prevented at least 9 million surprise bills. Senator Hassan also helped pass into law three bipartisan measures to increase access to generic and biosimilar medications. Additionally, the Inflation Reduction Act included a number of key provisions that Senator Hassan pushed for to take on Big Pharma and address the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs, including allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices – which will bring down the cost of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries and help drive down prices across the board.

See coverage highlights below from WCAX and WMUR:

By Adam Sullivan

LEBANON, N.H. (WCAX) - Addiction, access to rural health care, and high drug prices were just some of the issues U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra discussed during a stop in the Upper Valley Tuesday. For the third time in as many months, a member of President Biden’s cabinet traveled to New Hampshire touting the work of the administration.

[…]

The Biden administration’s so-called Investing in America Tour is highlighting provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act designed to lower health care costs by capping out-of-pocket payments.

“No senior is going to have to pay more than $2,000 out of pocket for prescription drugs. That may not seem like a lot for some people but there are thousands and thousands of Americans that are paying tens of thousands of dollars every single year for their drug prices,” Becerra said.

The act also allows Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies and caps monthly insulin costs at $35. “The manufacturers of insulin, having shown that they could live with the $35 cap on Medicare, are going to be capping it for other cohorts as well,” Sen. Hassan said.

[…]

By Adam Sexton

LEBANON, N.H. —Access to maternal health care for women in rural areas is shrinking across the country, and on Tuesday, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services heard more about the problem in New Hampshire.

Secretary Xavier Becerra said that Washington needs to do more to address the issue.

In the birthing pavilion at Dartmouth-Hitchcock in Lebanon, Becerra and U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, heard from providers about the expectant mothers in New Hampshire and Vermont who rely on the hospital.

[…]

Hassan said that political interference in obstetric care is part of what keeps practitioners out of some rural areas.

"One of the observations I'd make is it's really important that we stop politicizing reproductive care and let health care professionals know that when they come to practice in a place like New Hampshire or anywhere across the United States, they will be respected as the professionals they are to work with their patients and meet their patients where they are," Hassan said.

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