Dems eye slimmed-down drug price deal to advance social spending bill
Congressional Democrats are watering down — and may entirely drop — a plan to have the government directly negotiate some Medicare drug prices in order to help clinch a deal on their sweeping social spending package.
Top Democrats have acknowledged for weeks that they’ve had to significantly weaken the plan in order to win over holdout centrist lawmakers. But they’re preparing to compromise far more than advocates or lawmakers expected as they run up against party leaders’ deadline for a deal on the broader legislation.
“It’s been eviscerated,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who chairs the health subcommittee of House Ways and Means, and has pushed for aggressive drug price controls. “At some point you have to ask: Is it worth it to pass it at all if it’s going to be some meaningless thing?”
The pressure to reach an agreement that can pass the House and Senate has intensified with the failure to reach agreements on other revenue-raising provisions that can pay for new programs in the bill, including expansions of Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare subsidies and home health care. Efforts to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations, for example, have run into opposition from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dems-eye-slimmed-down-drug-price-deal-to-advance-social-spending-bill/ar-AAPQCvO
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