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Lamont has a plan to slash drug prices

Mark Lennihan
/
AP

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont is pushing for state lawmakers to slash prescription drug prices.

Lamont announced a proposal that would limit the amount prescription drug prices can increase each year.

“What that means is, the pharmaceutical companies get all their return for all the incredible innovation they’ve done, in terms of their initial pricing,” Lamont said on Tuesday at Beacon Prescriptions in New Britain. “But it just slows the rate of increase from there. I think that makes an extraordinary difference in terms of overall holding down healthcare costs for people.”

The governor wants to work with Massachusetts to limit annual increases in drug prices to no more than inflation, plus 2%. Lamont’s proposal would also allow for safe importation of lower-cost drugs from Canada.

Beacon’s pharmacist and owner Todd DeGroff said his customers have had to make difficult choices on how to pay for their prescriptions.

“They struggle to decide whether they pay their utility bills, put food on their counters, feed their children,” DeGroff said. “It’s a struggle to decide between food, power and prescriptions.”

Mike Lyle is a former reporter and host at WSHU.