Drug pricing gets its moment in the debate spotlight

"Medicare for All" has overshadowed most health care discussions in the seven Democratic presidential debates thus far, but the issue of lowering prescription drug costs finally had its time in the spotlight at last night's event. South Bend, Indiana’s former Mayor Pete Buttigieg pushed his plan to cap consumers’ drug costs at $250 a month, while former Vice President Joe Biden called for preventing drug makers from hiking their prices beyond inflation. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) faced the most pointed drug-related question of the night when she was asked to defend her plan for the government to manufacture its own — and cheaper — generic drugs. “[Pharma] has figured out how to manipulate this industry [to] keep jerking the prices up and up and up,” Warren said. “My view is, let’s give them a little competition.”