Drug price negotiation axed from latest social spending bill in Congress
The pharma industry has shown just how much lobbying power it has.
The sweeping social spending package being considered by Congress appears to be moving forward with no provision to allow the government to negotiate prescription drug prices.
Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he hopes Democrats still can find a way to address rising prescription drug costs but acknowledged the power the industry has shown so far to prevent even modest changes.
“Pharma is everywhere,” he said, according to Politico. “They have got more lobbyists than anybody.”
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, spent more than any other health care group trying to shape the legislative package. But other deep-pocketed players — from the nation’s biggest insurance companies to dental practices — also are likely to secure significant victories while dodging threats to their bottom lines.
Related: Bringing down drug prices: States target PBMs
Congress is poised to extend federal subsidies to buy Obamacare coverage until 2025, a provision favored by big insurers that sell plans on the individual market. Democrats also are set to subsidize private coverage for roughly two million low-income people in states that refused to expand Medicaid rather than create a new Medicaid-like program — another boon for health plans and medical providers who earn far more in the private insurance market than they do from Medicaid. Democrats’ promise to provide dental coverage to all seniors on Medicare was scuttled after insurance companies and the dental industry lobbied against it, and an attempt to claw back government payments from privately run Medicare Advantage plans was abandoned.
Progressives on Capitol Hill said they plan to keep pushing back against the industry’s influence, particularly on the drug pricing front.
“The challenge that we face in this really unusual moment in American history is whether we have the courage to stand with the American people and take on very powerful special interests,” Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said. “If we fail, if the American people do not believe that government can work for them and is dominated by powerful special interests, the very fabric of American democracy is in danger.”
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, speaking at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit, said the pharma industry is willing to step up and “pay our fair share, pay even more than our fair share” as long as it benefits patients struggling with out-of-pocket costs.
“Where we disagree is policies that will take all the money from the pharmaceutical industry and move them to the black hole of the federal budget to do other things,” he said. “This is not the issue right now. The issue is the out-of-pocket costs of patients, which are very, very high. That’s what we need to address.”
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