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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Todd Lippert (DFL)

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Rep. Lippert votes for legislation boosting MFIP, raising tobacco purchasing age, and providing transparency to prescription drug pricing

Saturday, May 9, 2020

St. Paul, MN - Today, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed several bills off the House floor, including legislation to boost payments for low-income working Minnesotans in the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), raise the state’s tobacco purchasing age to 21, and provide transparency to the pricing of prescription drugs. State Representative Todd Lippert (DFL - Northfield) voted for all three bills. 

“Our work in the Minnesota House today focused on delivering resources and measures that would improve the quality of life for Minnesotans,” said Rep. Lippert. “Whether it’s helping to prevent teenagers from becoming dependent on tobacco, shining a light on the practices of drug manufacturers, or providing support to the families who have been the hardest hit by COVID-19, now especially is the time to be looking out for the health and wellbeing of everyone in our state.”
The MFIP legislation,
HF 4582, appropriates $13.85 million in federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds to provide one-time payments of up to $500 per household for families enrolled in MFIP or the Diversionary Work Program (DWP), programs that help Minnesotans move to financial stability through work. Families that participate in these programs have limited access to COVID-19 assistance. They aren’t eligible for unemployment insurance, and many won’t receive the federal government’s COVID-19 stimulus relief checks.

In December of 2019, Tobacco 21 became federal law, raising the minimum age required to legally purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21 for the entire country. At the time, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) directed retailers to immediately implement the change. Some retailers, however, have expressed confusion and insisted they will not comply until they see the change made at the state level. Today’s legislation, HF 331, provides clarity on Tobacco 21 statewide. 

For the Prescription Drug Transparency Act, SF 1098, drug manufacturers are not subject to the same price transparency that hospitals, providers and health plans are. The bill requires price transparency for three categories of drugs: existing drugs, new drugs and newly acquired drugs. Drug manufacturers would be required to report to the Commissioner of Health drug pricing information for drugs that exceed certain thresholds or increase by a certain percentage over a 12 or 24 month period. The Minnesota Department of Health would post this information on a public website in an easily accessible and clear format.

A video recording of today’s floor debate can be found here

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