Pelosi, Dems Unveil Price Plan: Are 25 Drugs Enough for Negotiation?
Summary
With the 2020 election just over a year away, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has unveiled the Democratic Party’s answer to public discontent over high prescription drug prices. The new plan would have the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is in charge of the government insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid, negotiate the price of “the bare minimum” of 25 high-priced drugs a year that don’t have generic or biosimilar competition. In a press conference Thursday, Pelosi (pictured above) said the plan would bring “enormous savings”—the Congressional Budget Office has yet to issue its analysis—that could be spent on improved Medicare benefits, more basic research at the National Institutes of Health, or perhaps to boost the HHS secretary’s capacity to negotiate beyond the 25-drug minimum. That argument about expanded capacity could become key to the bill’s fate, as the 25-drug figure has raised concerns from the party’s left flank, according to a Politico report. The Pelosi plan would set a ceiling determined by a formula that includes the prices of drugs in six foreign countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
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