Posted by Michael Wonder on 07 Nov 2018
With a new Congress, a window opens to finally bring down drug prices
7 November 2018 - With the new Congress mostly in place, now split between a Democratic House and a Republican Senate, a new dynamic is in place.
Any legislation, including efforts to rein in drug prices, will need to have bipartisan support to move forward. Bringing pricing restraint to the costliest prescription drugs should be a bipartisan priority, especially given President Trump’s public pledges to act on drug prices and the negative impact of costly drugs on the federal budget, not to mention on the budgets of families and employers. The change in the House should provide a new political dynamic that offers possibilities for real action on drug prices.
Trump campaigned on a promise to lower “astronomical” drug prices, and called for giving Medicare more negotiating power. He summoned CEOs from the big pharmaceutical firms to the Oval Office shortly after he was sworn in, brought in the TV cameras, and promised to do something about drug prices.
