Tim Scott's 2024 campaign promise of cheaper drugs contradicts pro-Pharma record

Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said he envisions a future “where new medical cures and cheaper drugs are lowering healthcare costs and lengthening our lives” in prepared remarks for his May 22 presidential campaign announcement speech. During his more than 12 years in Congress, however, Scott has repeatedly opposed legislation that would lower the cost of prescription drugs and has taken more than $1 million from pharmaceutical interests.

Scott was elected to the House in 2010 on a platform that included opposition to Obamacare. Two years later, he was appointed by Gov. Nikki Haley to fill the Senate seat vacated by Republican Jim DeMint.

In the Senate, he has been a loyal supporter of the pharmaceutical industry, and he opposed legislation that would increase competition in the industry and curb price gouging.

Scott voted against the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, which included a provision imposing a penalty for generic drug manufacturers that increased the prices of medications for Medicaid beneficiaries.

In 2017, he voted against a budget resolution amendment that would have established “a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to lower prescription drug prices for Americans by importing drugs from Canada.” Senators will often hold votes on whether to create a reserve fund as a way to put colleagues on record on a topic without actually passing legislation.  The pharmaceutical industry strongly opposed allowing Canadian drug imports, while the AARP backed it as a way to “help restrain costs, improve access to, and enhance the safety of re-imported pharmaceutical products.” The amendment was voted down.

He also voted for President Donald Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which slashed tax rates for wealthy Americans and large corporations. According to an Oxfam analysis reviewed by Axios, the law saved pharmaceutical giants Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer a total of $7 billion in taxes in 2018 alone.

In 2021, Scott helped lead the GOP’s successful efforts to block the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, a bill that would have allowed the federal government to negotiate prices for prescription drugs and insulin and to lower the cost of those treatments for private insurers. He authored a report opposing the bill that claimed lower profits for pharmaceutical companies would cause drug shortages, fewer new medications, and bankrupt businesses.

“The problem is that the Democrats’ plan endeavors to remedy the current situation through price controls,” he wrote. “In other words, Democrats propose the federal government should be in charge of deciding the price of treatments, instead of a competitive free marketplace sustained by companies driving innovation.”

The pharmaceutical industry also opposed the bill, making the same claims. A 2019 analysis by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation predicted, however, that lower pharmaceutical company profits would only result in “approximately 8 fewer drugs” over 10 years and “about 30 fewer drugs over the subsequent decade.”

In August 2022, Scott voted against an amendment that would have capped the out-of-pocket cost of insulin at $35 a month for all Americans covered by insurance. He then voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which capped out-of-pocket costs of prescription drugs and insulin for Medicare beneficiaries. President Joe Biden signed the act into law that month.

A Scott spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this story.

The industry has rewarded the South Carolina Republican handsomely for his votes; he was among the top five recipients of pharmaceutical industry money during the 2022 election cycle, and he was ultimately elected to a second full term. According to OpenSecrets, he has received at least $1,019,195 from the pharmaceutical and health products industries since 2009. About $350,000 of that came during his 2022 reelection campaign.

In March 2022, Kaiser Health News reported that Scott was the top recipient of campaign donations from Pharma in all of Congress for the second half of 2021.

“So they’ll say, Tim Scott is up, he’s an up-and-comer, he’s been a pretty good guy,” Stephen Billet, associate professor at the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, told the outlet. “It’s a good idea to get out front and put some money in his pocket.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.