At Roundtable, Gallego Discusses Work Fighting to Lower Costs for Arizonans
At a roundtable with leaders from across Arizona, Gallego details new report, ‘Cutting Costs for Arizonans: How Rep. Gallego is Fighting to Make Life More Affordable for Hardworking Families’
PHOENIX — Joined by dozens of leaders from around Arizona, Rep. Gallego held a roundtable today to discuss his efforts to lower costs for hardworking Arizona families.
The roundtable coincided with the recent release of his new report, ‘Cutting Costs for Arizonans: How Rep. Gallego is Fighting to Make Life More Affordable for Hardworking Families,’ which details Rep. Gallego’s efforts to bring down the cost of living in Arizona.
“Although we’ve made tremendous efforts to cool inflation, some costs are still frustratingly high for Arizonans,” said Rep. Gallego. “That’s why I recently released my report underlining our efforts to cut costs, and today it was a pleasure to discuss with leaders in our Arizona communities about what more we can be doing to keep prices down for Arizona families.”
Meeting at Native Health, Rep. Gallego met with and listened to leaders from various businesses, nonprofits, and health providers in Arizona.
The report released by Rep. Gallego last week details Arizona families' challenges with rising costs in different aspects of their lives. Section by section, the report highlights Rep. Gallego’s work to bring those costs down. This means supporting Arizonans to combat rising costs:
- At Home;
- With the Family;
- At the Pharmacy;
- At the Store; and
- On the Go.
One such example detailed in the report is prescription drug costs. Between July 2021 and July 2022, there were over 1,200 drugs whose prices increased faster than inflation, despite historic inflation that year — resulting in record profits for pharmaceutical companies. The average price increase for those drugs was 31.6%.
These price increases mean more and more Arizonans travel across the border to Mexico each year to buy prescription drugs.
That’s why Rep. Gallego not only was a strong supporter of the Inflation Reduction Act, but he has introduced legislation such as the Lower Drug Costs for Families Act, to extend the Medicare rebate provision of the IRA to the commercial market and protect all Arizonans from Big Pharma price gouging — saving Arizonans on their next trip to the pharmacy.