Democrats have been campaigning for 30 years with the promise of having Medicare negotiate the cost of prescription drugs directly. And, after all, they may finally be trying to achieve it.
Important reason: The Senate settlement bill only opens a few drug negotiations, but it’s still a threshold that the Democrats haven’t been able to pass. And that opens the door to more aggressive policies in the future.
Flashback: The then president, Bill Clinton, proposed direct negotiations between the pharmaceutical company and the federal government in 1993.
- Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and even Donald Trump each accepted the idea during their tenure or as a candidate, but hindered drug development and the elderly. I was hampered by the argument that I would limit my choices.
- Federal law prohibits Medicare from directly negotiating the amount to pay for medicines since 2003.
“Finally eliminated Chris Jennings, president of President Clinton and President Obama’s health policy adviser, said:
Yes, but: The price negotiation version included in the Senate bill is much narrower than most of those ambitious campaign proposals.
- Sieg Emmanuel, former President Obama’s Health Policy Advisor and Chairman of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, said:
- “We’re talking about 10 medicines, and at the end of 10 years we’re moving to a whopping 20 medicines, and unless you can include insulin, how many people will be affected is huge. I think it’s a problem. “
If negotiations are legislated But now, future governments and parliament may expand them and negotiate more medicines.
- And despite the restrictions built into this measure, the pharmaceutical industry still warns that it will have catastrophic consequences.
Opposite side: The pharmaceutical industry and its allies say that this kind of policy (which they say is more like price control than price negotiation) provides incentives for small biotechnology companies to take the scientific risks needed to develop new drugs. I’ve long insisted that it would weaken.
- Under the Democratic Party’s plan, the Office of Management and Budget estimated that the number of drugs introduced into the US market would decline by about two over the next decade and by about five over the next decade.
But the industry debate isn’t as resonating as it is nowPrices are still rising, and the public is plagued by broader inflation concerns. Polls show that the majority support empowering governments to negotiate prices.
- “At the moment inflation is a problem today, not just health care costs, this policy resonates more than ever,” Jennings said.
Conclusion: “We only rush things through in the event of a war, a major economic turmoil, or a once-in-a-century pandemic,” Emmanuel said. “When 90% of Democratic and Republican voters say they want price negotiations, it’s been a very long time that Congress can get in the way … this shows that it’s over at some point. . “
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