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Pelosi's Drug Plan Would Let U.S. Negotiate Prices of 250 Medications
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan would allow the government to negotiate the price of up to 250 name-brand drugs for Medicare beneficiaries — an idea that many Republicans hate but that President Trump embraced during his 2016 campaign.
WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday released her long-awaited plan to curb soaring prices of prescription drugs, a political chess move that could prod the Senate to move and heat up congressional negotiations with the White House on a popular but elusive goal.
Ms. Pelosi’s plan, which she laid out at a morning news conference, would allow the government to negotiate the price of insulin and as many as 250 name-brand drugs each year for Medicare beneficiaries — an idea that many Republicans hate but that President Trump embraced during his 2016 campaign. Drug companies would also have to offer the agreed-on prices to private insurers or face harsh penalties, which could give the package broader appeal with voters.
The hit to noncompliant companies would be even stiffer than the penalty in a draft of her plan that circulated last week. The penalty extracted from a company unwilling to comply would be equal to 65 percent of the previous year’s sales of the drug in question, but would gradually increase by 10 percentage points every quarter that the company refuses to offer the government’s price, to a maximum of 95 percent. Ms. Pelosi said that the House Energy and Commerce Committee would hold the first hearing on the bill on Wednesday, and that she hoped the committees of jurisdiction would begin drafting final legislation next month.
But even as Ms. Pelosi introduced the bill, Republicans on that committee indicated that they had no intention of getting behind it. In a statement, all 24 accused Ms. Pelosi of “pushing a socialist proposal to appease her most extreme members.”
Ms. Pelosi’s plan, which she laid out at a morning news conference, would allow the government to negotiate the price of insulin and as many as 250 name-brand drugs each year for Medicare beneficiaries — an idea that many Republicans hate but that President Trump embraced during his 2016 campaign. Drug companies would also have to offer the agreed-on prices to private insurers or face harsh penalties, which could give the package broader appeal with voters.
The hit to noncompliant companies would be even stiffer than the penalty in a draft of her plan that circulated last week. The penalty extracted from a company unwilling to comply would be equal to 65 percent of the previous year’s sales of the drug in question, but would gradually increase by 10 percentage points every quarter that the company refuses to offer the government’s price, to a maximum of 95 percent. Ms. Pelosi said that the House Energy and Commerce Committee would hold the first hearing on the bill on Wednesday, and that she hoped the committees of jurisdiction would begin drafting final legislation next month.
But even as Ms. Pelosi introduced the bill, Republicans on that committee indicated that they had no intention of getting behind it. In a statement, all 24 accused Ms. Pelosi of “pushing a socialist proposal to appease her most extreme members.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/us/politics/pelosi-drug-prices.html
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