President Joe Biden’s election, combined with Democratic control of the House and Senate, give Democrats the opportunity to help Americans and bring down the price of prescription drugs. As a starter, Congress could end the ban on Medicare drug price negotiation. Better still, it could benchmark drug prices in the US to prices in other wealthy countries. But, it’s not at all clear that the Democrats will try to pass drug price legislation or, if they do try, that they will succeed.
At the end of 2019, the House passed legislation that would allow Medicare to negotiate the price of 350 drugs over 10 years. HR3 also extended Medicare’s negotiated prices to all private insurers. Strangely, however, HR3 does not allow uninsured Americans to benefit from the negotiated prices.
Nicholas Storko reports for StatNews that it will be a heavy lift for the Senate to repeal the ban on Medicare drug price negotiation. Even if every Democrat agreed–and that should not be taken as a given–passing the legislation might require 60 votes. Moreover, Republicans and Pharma will put up a big fight.
Usually, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, arguably the most conservative of the Democratic House members, resists joining with his party over progressive policies. With drugs, he might join with them; he co-sponsored legislation in 2019 to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. This time around, Senators Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Kirsten Sinema of Arizona might keep the Senate from repealing the ban, even if only a majority of Senators are needed to pass the legislation. Sinema appears to be closely tied to Pharma.
Menendez openly voted against allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices in 2019. He has said privately that he opposed the 2019 legislation because he didn’t think it would benefit individuals adequately. His spokesperson reports that Menendez does not think repealing the ban would save people money, a misleading claim that the Congressional Budget Office made when the conservative Douglas Holz-Eakin headed it. If the legislation benchmarks drug prices to the average of what other wealthy nations pay, it probably would cut drug prices in half.
Some Republicans might support repeal of the Medicare ban on negotiating drug prices. But, that’s a long shot. No Senate Republicans are co-sponsoring bills to lower Medicare drug prices.
In addition, this year, the Democrats hold a much slimmer majority in the House than in 2019. So, HR3 would not likely pass in the House as currently drafted. If a new version were to pass, it is likely to be even less comprehensive than HR3.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Drugs with high prices are often no better than lower-cost drugs
- Six tips for keeping your drug costs down if you have Medicare
- Online pharmacies can save you money
- What would a President Biden do about drug prices?
- One in three FDA-approved drugs have safety risks
