Workers in New Jersey deserve access to the best possible health care. With many of us relying on our employer or union for health insurance, it’s critical that we maintain our leverage when it comes to negotiating more affordable prices on our health benefits, especially for prescription drugs.

As health care continues to rise, it would be a mistake for the New Jersey legislature to advance Assembly Bill A-4953, which would raise costs for patients, unions, and employers by millions each year.

Like similar bills introduced across the country, A4953 would ban incentives that allow pharmacy benefit managers to negotiate savings for unions and other organizations working to keep prescription drug costs down.

New Jersey workers, their families, and patients across the board who get their insurance through the commercial market can’t afford hundreds of millions in new costs – not now, not ever. Our lawmakers need to reject Assembly Bill 4953.

Anthony Abrantes

Eastern Atlantic State Regional Council of Carpenters