Battle set in Washington over competing drug pricing bills

A battle of drug pricing bills is set to play out this week in Washington. On one side of the ring is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s proposal, which would both use an international standard to cap prices and allow Medicare to directly negotiate the cost of certain medicines. In the other corner is a Republican document that includes some bipartisan policies already under consideration in the Senate, such as capping Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket expenditures at $3,100. The GOP suggestions were unveiled in a closed-door meeting Friday morning, just in time to compete with Pelosi’s bill, which is up for a vote in the House this week. In an added layer of tension, some Democrats may not vote for Pelosi’s bill if it doesn’t extend protections to uninsured patients.