November 01, 2021

Arizona Alliance Holds Halloween Rally Outside Senator Sinema’s Office

Dressed in scary Halloween costumes, members of the Arizona Alliance held a rally outside Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s (AZ) Phoenix office on Friday. The event was held to decry the Senator’s decision to break her promise to support Medicare drug price negotiation and instead side with the powerful pharmaceutical industry.

In 2014, then-Representative Sinema told the Alliance in writing that she backed the measure which would lower drug prices.

“Senator Sinema has had enormous leverage and influence over what President Biden’s Build Back Better plan includes, and drug price negotiations were removed from the framework released yesterday. She clearly did not fight for us when the time came,” said Arizona Alliance President Saundra Cole. “This is a life or death issue for thousands of seniors. Nearly one in four older Americans reports they can’t afford a prescription drug their doctor prescribed due to its price, and many skip doses, cut pills in half or don’t fill their prescriptions at all. We expected better from our senior U.S. Senator.”

Ninety-four percent of Arizonans want Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. Senator Sinema has received more than $250,000 in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry.

“Alliance activists in Arizona and beyond have worked tirelessly to make Medicare drug price negotiations a reality,” said Joseph Peters, Jr., Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance. “This bill is not final yet, and we need to keep fighting for lower drug prices on behalf of every older American.”