ROANOKE, Va. – Imagine struggling to pay for life-saving prescriptions — that’s what one Roanoke man is experiencing. He and others are asking Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to sign a bill that’d make medications more affordable in the Commonwealth.
“Right now, I’m uninsured,” Roanoke resident David Harper said. “No job, and I can’t afford the medicine.”
Harper takes heart medication, something he needs to stay alive, but at a cost of $600 every 60 days, it’s not easy to get.
“Stress of thinking that from month to month if you’re going to get the medicine or not,” Harper said.
Other people agree with Harper, that you shouldn’t have to worry about if you can afford an essential medication.
“25% of healthcare costs go to prescription drugs,” Executive Director of Freedom Virginia Rhena Hicks said. “That’s why it’s important that we need to rein in the costs of those.”
Delegate Sam Rasoul (D-Roanoke) is another supporter of the bill on Governor Youngkin’s desk.
“You have an affordability board that then analyzes some of the especially higher cost drugs and then makes policy recommendations then to the general assembly to try to do everything we can to manage the high costs of prescription drugs,” Rasoul said.
People advocating for affordable medication prices, say this is a bipartisan effort. AARP conducted a poll where they found that 81% of Democrats, 70% of Independents, and 71% of Republicans support the bill.
“The reality is that Virginians are paying well above the national average as far as prescription drugs,” Rasoul said. “We need to stop the fleecing of Virginians.”
Governor Youngkin has until April 8 to take action on the bill.