Mission St & 7th St
San Francisco, CA 94103
USA
RALLY
The President will be delivering his State of the Union Address on Jan. 12th in the evening. Join with other senior and disability organizations, labor unions, and environmental activists to let the President know that California opposes the TPP (and let Congresswoman Pelosi hear us too!). Events like this will be happening around the country on this day –prior to the President’s speech. Stand up and be counted.
If you can’t attend the rally on the Jan. 12th – please be sure to make these calls: (you don’t need to wait until Jan. 12th to call)
STOP THE TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (TPP)
It’s a Bad Deal for Seniors, People with Disabilities, and Medicare!
Call Senator Feinstein and Your Congressperson Today
Capitol Switchboard: 877-762-8762
The United States has concluded negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, and on November 5, 2015, President Obama released the text of the agreement. This started a 90-day period for public review before Congress can take an up or down vote. The agreement contains various provisions that could affect drug prices for all Americans, including seniors. These provisions would block patent reform and jeopardize the government’s ability to negotiate lower prices for drugs in public programs like Medicare. Here are some key talking points that you can use when talking with your elected officials and others about the dangers of the TPP:
Fewer jobs, lower wages
Voting for the TPP means fewer jobs and lower wages for American workers. This is because it fails to address currency manipulation; has incredibly weak rules of origin on autos and auto parts; and fails to level the playing field in terms of state-owned enterprises and labor and environmental standards.
All the rhetoric being used to pitch the TPP has been heard before. NAFTA and CAFTA were supposed to end undocumented immigration. The Colombia Free Trade Agreement was supposed to solve the long-standing issues of violent repression of labor unionists. And the Korea FTA was going to create 70,000 jobs. Not one of these promises has been fulfilled.
Higher Prescription Drug Prices
The Alliance for Retired Americans, Doctors Without Borders, AARP and Oxfam America agree: TPP contains extreme patent protections for name-brand pharmaceuticals that threaten to restrict access to cheaper lifesaving medicines in all TPP countries, including in the United States.
TPP contains a lengthy patent exclusivity period for certain types of drugs – including biologics, special drugs used to treat cancer and arthritis. This will make it more difficult for other companies to manufacture the cheaper generic versions of drugs – leading to higher costs for everyone.
TPP jeopardizes the government’s ability to list and price prescription drugs in public programs, like Medicare, which millions of seniors and disabled people rely on. More specifically, foreign corporations or subsidiaries will be able to challenge Medicare if drug pricing in these programs affects their profits. .
Finally, TPP could tie the hands of future Congresses to negotiate drug prices under Medicare or enact a Medicare drug rebate program, which would save Medicare $121 billion over 10 years.
Americans pay the highest prescription drug prices in the industrialized world, and last year drug prices went up by 13 percent. That’s more than eight times the rate of inflation in a single year! We think Congress should be working on ways to reduce drug costs, rather than making this problem worse. This is not the time to support an agreement that could further increase drug costs to consumers and the government while lining the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry.