Congress considering drug pricing legislation to help pay for proposed infrastructure spending
Drug pricing overhaul is one of the few issues under consideration that would save money in a sprawling package.
Congress hopes to pass a massive infrastructure improvement package, and the pharmaceutical industry may end up footing part of the bill.
Democrats appear intent on using their razor-thin congressional majorities to finally push through a drug pricing overhaul for at least one simple reason: It’s one of the few issues under consideration that would save money in a sprawling package expected to cost trillions, Politico reported.
“The huge difference between drug prices and literally everything else out there: Everything else costs money, and this one saves money,” said Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, whose group is in close contact with congressional staffers on drug pricing.
Related: Drug price reform legislation mired in political distractions
The long-running drug pricing debate, propelled by bipartisan voter anger over high prescription drug costs, had been stalled by the pandemic before it sprang back to life last week with two major developments: House Democrats began exploring whether to include negotiations in the forthcoming infrastructure package, and one of the pharmaceutical industry’s most vocal critics, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), abruptly scheduled the first hearing on drug prices in the new Congress for Tuesday.
The hearing announcement jolted some pharma lobbyists, and one said it signaled the industry could become the “piggy bank” for the infrastructure bill. It also underscored the challenge the industry faces in trying to use the pandemic to alter its perception from price-gougers to world-savers.
Democratic leaders are widely expected to advance the infrastructure package using a budget maneuver known as reconciliation, which would allow them to pass it with simple majorities in both chambers. That could let them tack on party priorities on health care, climate change and other policies that otherwise could fall victim to the Senate filibuster
Some drug industry lobbyists believe that enough Senate moderates may have reservations about the House version of the legislation, H.R. 3, and the way it would, for example, limit the maximum negotiated price to what’s paid for the drug in other developed countries. Those lobbyists also believe the industry’s hand has been strengthened by the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines that can bring the pandemic under control.
“I think getting moderate Senate Democrats on board for H.R. 3 is going to be a challenge, and I think there’s a lot of salient points attacking that policy around cures and the investments in the COVID vaccines, which have been shown to be effective,” one health lobbyist said.
House Democrats approved their negotiation bill in the previous Congress, but it never came up for a vote in the Senate, which at the time was controlled by Republicans.
Privately, some drug industry lobbyists said they hoped to nudge Democrats toward focusing on a separate — and narrower — drug pricing effort that came out of the Senate Finance Committee with some bipartisan support last Congress. The bill, from Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and then-Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), doesn’t authorize negotiations but aims to curb drug price hikes in Medicare and caps seniors’ out-of-pocket spending, as the House version would.
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