Virginia state senator opposed efforts to lower drug costs

Republican Virginia state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant is running online ads that present her as a doctor who has worked with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to make prescription drugs affordable. But over her eight years in the Legislature, she has repeatedly voted against bills that would help Virginians access affordable medications.

Dunnavant, a practicing OB-GYN, is facing a tough reelection this November against Democratic Del. Schulyer VanValkenburg. Their race could determine partisan control of the Virginia Senate for the next four years. After the last round of redistricting in 2021, the newly designed suburban Richmond-area district in which Dunnavant is running leans slightly Democratic.

Dunnavant’s campaign has been running web advertisements claiming that she “works across the aisle to deliver for you” and that “as a doctor & senator, she is delivering prescription affordability.”

The ads link to her campaign website, which says Dunnavant “reduced out-of-pocket costs by requiring insurance companies to count prescription drug coupons and discounts toward a patient’s deductible.”

The legislation the website alludes to did not reduce the actual price of prescription drugs, and Dunnavant voted against a bill that aimed to lower costs.

This past January, Democratic lawmakers introduced a proposal that would have established an independent prescription drug affordability board in the state with the authority to review drug prices and set consumer cost limits for medications covered by state-regulated and state-sponsored plans. The board was modeled on similar boards in seven other states, and supporters estimate it would reduce costs for more than 7 million Virginians.

Pro-health care affordability nonprofit Freedom Virginia and labor unions, medical groups, AARP Virginia, the Virginia Association of Counties, and the NAACP Virginia Chapter all backed the proposal. A 2022 Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy poll found most registered Virginia voters supported the idea of “allowing Virginia to set a limit on costs for certain expensive prescription drugs.”

In February, the bill passed in the Virginia Senate on a 26-13 bipartisan vote. Dunnavant, 12 of her Senate GOP colleagues, and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration opposed the bill. The GOP-led House of Delegates killed it in committee.

Freedom Virginia responded with digital ads criticizing Dunnavant’s vote. In the spots, local internal medicine doctor Wendy Klein tells voters, “I don’t understand why Senator Dunnavant, who’s a doctor, would vote against a bill that would reduce prescription drug costs.”

In response to an American Independent Foundation inquiry for this story, a Dunnavant spokesperson said, “Senator Dunnavant is with patients today at her medical practice and is unavailable for an interview.”

But Dunnavant told the Richmond Times Dispatch in April, “I did not support that initiative because there wasn’t enough evidence to show that it would be effective.”

Freedom Virginia executive director Rhena Hicks said in an email on Tuesday:

This year 26 bipartisan Senators voted for a Prescription Drug Affordability Board to lower the cost of medicine. That’s why it’s so unfortunate to see Sen. Dunnavant claim she’s fighting for affordable medicine. Her extremist positions to prioritize drug companies’ profits over your health put her out of step with her colleagues and the 82% of Virginians who support the legislation.

According to data from the Virginia Public Access Project, Dunnavant has taken tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry. She received more than $8,000 from the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, the industry’s trade group and a fierce opponent of government-set limits on prescription drug prices.

This is not the only time Dunnavant has cast votes that undermine access to affordable medications.

She ran ads during her 2015 campaign opposing the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, and the idea of expanding the number of Virginians eligible for Medicaid coverage under the law: “Lawyers wrote Obamacare and now crybaby politicians want to expand Medicaid. I say no. I can handle crying babies and deliver conservative results for you.”

In 2018, Dunnavant voted against the state budget, which included a bipartisan Medicaid expansion. “You don’t fix health care by throwing money at it,” she told the New York Times. “You fix health care by using evidence-based programs and having them accountable.” The expansion became law despite her efforts, providing hundreds of thousands of Virginians with access to health care and prescription drug coverage.

An opponent of abortion rights, Dunnavant voted for a 2017 bill that would have stripped all state funding for Planned Parenthood and other groups that provide abortion care. Planned Parenthood offers free and low-cost birth control medications for many Virginians.

VanValkenberg was a co-patron of the House version of the bill to establish a prescription drug affordability board.

On his campaign site, VanValkenberg says: “Every Virginian deserves access to high-quality, affordable healthcare. In 2018, I voted to expand Medicaid — which gave healthcare access to more than 500,000 Virginians. In the State Senate, I will continue to fight to lower prescription drug costs and improve our healthcare system so that it works better for working families.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.