Gov. Jared Polis kicked off this year’s session with a laudable promise: “saving Coloradans money and keeping our state affordable is my top priority this session.” Health insurers support the sentiment, but key features of this year’s legislative agenda undermine the Polis pledge.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the recent introduction of the House Bill 22-1370: Coverage Requirements for Health-Care Products. The legislation purports to help reduce consumer drug spending, but in reality, it will raise the costs of premiums for Coloradans by an estimated $17 to $36 per member, per month. That equates to a 5.7% to 13.6% increase in premium cost for each member per month in order to line Big Pharma’s pockets. It will increase health care costs for Coloradans.

This bill eliminates tools that carriers use to mitigate the high prices that pharmaceutical companies set for their drugs – the same tools used by Medicaid and Medicare to reduce costs to consumers. These tools include step therapy, formulary tiers and drug rebates to help ensure consumers get the most clinically appropriate, cost-effective prescriptions to reduce premiums and out-of-pocket costs. In Colorado, it is estimated that pharmaceutical costs have risen 87% from 2013 to 2019.

Yet, rather than doing anything to lower the price of prescription drugs, the bill actually puts in place policies that are in direct contradiction to the administration’s own 2021 Report on Reducing Prescription Drug Costs in Colorado. In that very report, the Polis Administration asserts that lawmakers should pause at the policy of point-of-sale rebates to consumers, “because it can incentivize consumers for taking – and reward manufacturers for promoting -the higher cost brand-name drugs.”

The report also states, “Step therapy helps to lower costs by promoting the use of safer and/or less expensive medications first, then allowing the patient to ‘step up’ to a different drug if needed to achieve desired results.” However, included in this bill are the very policies the Administration warned against.

Nothing in this bill will reduce pharmaceutical prices, which is what consumers and carriers both want. Instead, it will actually increase the amount of money going to Big Pharma. But don’t take my word for it. Read the U.S. House of Representatives Drug Pricing Report published in December. According to a three-year investigation, pharmaceutical companies are:

“Raising prices with abandon, especially when they succeed in delaying or blocking competition. Internal documents reveal that companies have raised prices to meet ever-increasing revenue targets, which in some cases were tied to higher pay for executives.”

“Several companies have also used patient assistance programs and donations to third-party organizations – which were ostensibly intended to help patients afford expensive drugs – as tools to garner positive public relations, increase sales, and raise revenue. Committee’s investigation uncovered new evidence that companies emphasized the significant returns on investment from these programs in the form of increased sales, particularly for drugs approaching loss of exclusivity. For example, internal documents from both Teva and AbbVie indicate that these donations were intended to drive sales or attract patients who otherwise might not have used the companies’ drugs.”

Health insurance providers have worked hard to lower premiums 28% since 2019 and expand insurance choices across the state. But additional premium reductions are not possible when the Administration is pushing policies they already know run counter to saving people money on health care.

Coloradans across the state should be clear – we expect the governor to follow through on his affordability promise and stop this bill.

Amanda Massey is executive director of the Colorado Association of Health Plans.