Pelosi’s drug pricing plan is a gift to her progressive flank
K Street was abuzz late Monday after a summary of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s long-awaited drug pricing plan started circulating. The plan is sweeping and very anti-pharma.
It would empower Medicare to negotiate the price of 250 drugs, would essentially tie what the U.S. pays for drugs to what a basket of other countries pay, and would require drug companies pay back a huge swath of price hikes since 2016.
What’s most notable, however, is what it doesn’t include: After months of bellyaching from progressives that Pelosi was going to allow a third-party arbiter, not the HHS secretary, to decide the price for drugs, the plan seems to abandon that idea entirely — the word arbitration isn’t even included in the plan. Read more about the plan here.
A senior democratic aide cautioned Monday that the plan "is an out of date draft" and that discussions are still ongoing between House committees. So, it remains to be seen how much will change. But reality check: If this plan isn't totally reworked it's virtually dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate.
And some situational awareness: Washington was also abuzz mere months ago that Wendell Primus, Pelosi's top health policy aide, was negotiating with the White House on a drug pricing plan Trump could support. Call me crazy, but I’ll eat crow if this is the plan the White House ends up endorsing.
It would empower Medicare to negotiate the price of 250 drugs, would essentially tie what the U.S. pays for drugs to what a basket of other countries pay, and would require drug companies pay back a huge swath of price hikes since 2016.
What’s most notable, however, is what it doesn’t include: After months of bellyaching from progressives that Pelosi was going to allow a third-party arbiter, not the HHS secretary, to decide the price for drugs, the plan seems to abandon that idea entirely — the word arbitration isn’t even included in the plan. Read more about the plan here.
A senior democratic aide cautioned Monday that the plan "is an out of date draft" and that discussions are still ongoing between House committees. So, it remains to be seen how much will change. But reality check: If this plan isn't totally reworked it's virtually dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate.
And some situational awareness: Washington was also abuzz mere months ago that Wendell Primus, Pelosi's top health policy aide, was negotiating with the White House on a drug pricing plan Trump could support. Call me crazy, but I’ll eat crow if this is the plan the White House ends up endorsing.
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