Anju Singh

As a member of the General Assembly, I will have a variety of legislative, regulatory, and enforcement tools at my disposal to lower healthcare costs and hold massive corporate systems accountable.

Here is a breakdown of the specific actions state leaders can take:

1. Legislative Action (The PA General Assembly)

Draft, debate, and pass laws directly targeting corporate profit margins and anticompetitive behaviors:

• Regulating Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs): Lawmakers can introduce bills to regulate PBMs—the powerful middlemen that manage prescription drug benefits. State legislation can mandate full price transparency, ban “spread pricing” (where PBMs charge insurers more than they pay pharmacies), and ensure cost savings are passed directly to consumers.
• Holding Corporate Executives Criminally Liable: Pennsylvania lawmakers have introduced innovative measures, such as House Bill 2611, which seeks to establish criminal penalties (such as aggravated assault charges) for insurance company CEOs if a coverage denial for medically necessary care results in serious injury or death.
• Capping Out-of-Pocket Prescription Costs: The legislature can pass laws capping the monthly out-of-pocket costs for critical medications, such as insulin or asthma treatments, forcing drug manufacturers and insurers to absorb excess costs.
• Banning Anti-Tiering and All-or-Nothing Contracts: Large hospital systems often use “all-or-nothing” clauses that force insurers to include all of their expensive facilities in a network. State laws can ban these anticompetitive contracting practices to allow smaller, lower-cost providers to compete.
• Structural System Reform: Lawmakers frequently introduce comprehensive systemic overhauls, such as proposed universal healthcare legislation aimed at eliminating private insurance deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance entirely in favor of an employer/employee-funded state model.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me.

Statement submitted by campaign or congressional office