{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/crapo-idahoans-deserve-more-affordable-accessible-health-care-not-wasteful-taxpayer-funded-mandates", "Crapo: Idahoans Deserve More Affordable, Accessible Health Care, Not Wasteful Taxpayer-Funded Mandates", "2024-09-18", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "Senate", "ID", "Mike Crapo", "C000880", "www.crapo.senate.gov", "crapo", "https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C.--During a U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing on the health care provisions included in the partisan Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) highlighted the bill\u2019s devastating effect on Americans\u2019 access to reliable, affordable health care, noting stifled pharmaceutical innovation and higher premiums caused by \u201cheavy-handed government intervention\u201d and \u201ctop-down, problematic overhauls.\u201d\n\nCrapo focused on the IRA\u2019s drug price-fixing program and emphasized how the IRA is decimating American medical innovation, \u201cwith at least 21 drugs and 36 research programs discontinued since the law\u2019s enactment,\u201d while systematically disadvantaging certain clinical breakthroughs, including oral cancer drugs and Alzheimer\u2019s therapies. Crapo also called for Congress to deliver more productive, bipartisan health care solutions, stating, \u201cInstead of perpetuating a tax-and-spend agenda, we can and should work together to improve health care choice, affordability and reliability.\u201d\n\nClick here or below to watch Senator Crapo\u2019s statement and read it here.\n\nKey Highlights:\n\n\u201cThis Committee has proven that bipartisan consensus and deliberative policymaking can yield real solutions, from driving down prices at the pharmacy counter to ensuring patients can confidently select a mental health provider who fits their needs.\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, the IRA took the opposite approach, advancing top-down, problematic program overhauls through a rushed, partisan process that sidelined the minority and ignored constructive input.\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cBureaucratic price fixing, under the guise of negotiation, may sound appealing, but it comes at a massive cost--particularly as firms begin to look elsewhere to launch new life-saving treatments.\n\n\u201cThe implications for the therapeutic R&D pipeline are already apparent, with at least 21 drugs and 36 research programs discontinued since the law\u2019s enactment.\n\n\u201cEven for approved drugs, delays and denials in care have started to skyrocket\u2014and yet the Biden-Harris Administration inexplicably excluded medications from its prior authorization reforms.\n\n\u201cFor Americans with rare diseases, 95 percent of which lack an approved treatment, the IRA contains a rigid disincentive for finding new uses for existing orphan drugs.\n\n. . .\n\nCrapo also highlighted that because the IRA\u2019s heavy-handed government intervention has triggered annual premium increases for seniors, the Administration is now attempting to hide these increases through taxpayer-financed subsidies and legally dubious programs. Crapo recently joined Senate and House leaders in requesting a review and analysis from the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Budget Office on this new cost-shifting program.\n\nClick here to watch Senator Crapo question witnesses at the hearing.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:43:57Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/crapo-idahoans-deserve-more-affordable-accessible-health-care-not-wasteful-taxpayer-funded-mandates"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0658400133252144, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}