(Source: MIRS.news, Published 06/01/2023) (MACKINAC ISLAND) – When asked what could be the signature policy issue she takes on in her high-ranking leadership post, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) pointed to reducing prescription drug costs.
"There are certainly things that I've worked on over the years that I would really love to see pass – prescription drug affordability is one of those," Brinks said to MIRS during the 2023 Mackinac Policy Conference, hosted by the Detroit Regional Chamber. "They may or may not have my name on the bills, but those are certainly my priorities."
While serving in the minority from 2019 through 2022, Brinks was the minority vice chair of the Senate Health Policy and Human Services Committee. In early 2022, she proposed legislation to create a prescription drug affordability board, which would be responsible for surveilling the pharmaceutical industry's prices and transparency in Michigan.
Ultimately, the proposed oversight arm could rollback the price-tags residents pay for certain high-cost pharmaceuticals and govern various rates. Under the legislation, the board would submit annual reports to legislators on price trends involving prescription drug products, as well as the number of products that were reviewed and what the results were.
The board would be funded by a special "prescription drug affordability fund" that absorbs relevant license fees from those operating in the industry. Brinks' bill is still in the Senate Health Policy and Human Services Committee.
"We're in the process of putting final touches on those bills and working with stakeholders and talking to people about that . . . those are likely going to be things that we can accomplish together," Brinks said. "Certainly, you'll see themes of my past policy work in those big policy initiatives."
In response to Thursday's statement, Michigan Association of Health Plans Executive Director Dominick Pallone said he's seeing “bold leadership in Michigan that is tackling prescription drug costs aggressively and effectively."
“From the Governor’s efforts to attract competitive insulin manufacturing to Michigan to the House requiring drug manufacturers to be more transparent with drug pricing with HB 4409, and now the Senate Majority Leader’s support for establishing a drug affordability review board, we applaud these leaders and their efforts to lower prescription drug costs,” he said.
Brinks answered multiple questions during an interview with MIRS, addressing the elevated price-tag of winning state Senate elections and environmental regulations.
MIRS: "Has the cost (of running) for state Senate gone up post-redistricting?"
BRINKS: "It certainly has gone up. I think the stakes of what happens in our states have gone up, and so it's hard to tie it specifically to only redistricting.
"I think when you look at it from a national perspective and you see what's happening with democracy, I think people really were engaged in a way and really started to understand that state legislatures have a huge impact on people's daily lives…so there was a lot more attention to places like Michigan where we knew we could take a chamber. Redistricting, maybe, is a piece of that puzzle, but I certainly don't think it's the only thing that's responsible for the increased costs."
MIRS: "As Senate majority leader, with this being your first year in the position, what's been the biggest obstacle?"
BRINKS: "We're really building this plane as we fly it. There's not a lot of institutional knowledge on the Dem side that's just out there, and while we're working well with the Republicans, obviously they weren't really excited about the shift in power and losing the majority.
"You really have to build an entirely new organization while you are working. We didn't get the keys to the office until the first of January, so even though we had from the election in November to the end of the year to get our feet under us, we weren't really able to hire employees or get into our offices, and get really settled, until we were expected to be producing legislation within days."
MIRS: "In the House, we have the aggregate legislation. What is your official stance on that?"
(HB 4526, HB 4527 and HB 4528 would create a statewide permitting process for aggregate mining, transitioning oversight power over sand and gravel mines from local governments to the state).
BRINKS: "It's a difficult policy area because of issues of local control, because of the issues of the environment . . . but we also have a need to make sure that we have affordable materials to put into roads and infrastructure – so those things are in tension right now. You'll see us have some productive conversations around those issues, and we'll try and work out some of the conflicts.
"But there's certainly work to be done in that area, and if it's possible to land in a good-policy place with policy that we can actually get passed and get to the Governor's desk . . . we'll see, but that's something that's going to need some work."
MIRS: "What is something that you want, that the Governor doesn't want?"
BRINKS: "We are still working on that great big Venn diagram, where we're all in the middle together. We don't always have the same order in mind for what we'd like to do. We don't always have exactly the same policy . . . but we are really marching together (on) similar themes.
"Investing in infrastructure is something that we all have in common, investing in education…trying to find ways to solve our housing challenges, that's something we are all committed to. So I think right now, we are just working through that long list of things that we know we want to do together, and if we have more time, we'll get to a point where I'm sure there will be things that are a little bit more difficult.
"But we'll see what those are."
In the Capitol Insider Survey of 2023, conducted by EPIC-MRA and commissioned by MIRS, 30% of respondents described Brinks' performance as excellent and 39% said it was pretty good. Overall, 69% of the survey's 577 participants had a positive perception of Brinks as the Senate majority leader.
