U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand made a stop in Utica on Thursday.

Gillibrand was at the Resource Center for Independent Living to announce a package of three bills to help reduce the cost of prescription drugs.

She says the bills will help ensure that everyone can access the medicine they need.

“As New Yorkers face growing health challenges and economic hardship in the wake of the pandemic, they are being forced to make decisions between picking up their drugs and buying groceries or keeping the lights on. And while people struggle to access the medications they need, the five largest pharmaceutical companies in the country are making tens of billions of dollars in profits,” said Gillibrand.

The Prescription Drug Price Relief Act would level the market for Americans buying prescription drugs by comparing the price in the United States to median prices in other countries, including Canada, the UK, France, Germany and Japan.

The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs under Medicare Part D and The Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act to allow patients, pharmacists and wholesalers to import safe, affordable medicine from Canada and other major countries.

Gillibrand says drug manufacturers continue to spike the price of their drugs despite one in four Americans unable to afford their medications.

She says 30 percent of adults say they have not taken medicine as prescribed in the last 12 months due to cost.

The Senator was joined at today's event by Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri and Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon.

READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

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