PUBLISHED
TUE, OCT 22 201910:31 PM EDTUPDATED WED, OCT 23 20195:53 AM EDT
KEY
POINTS
·
The House Ways and
Means Committee approves Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drug pricing bill.
·
The approval sends the
legislation to the full House floor for a vote expected by the end of the
month.
·
The legislation, which
passed three committees along partisan lines, has a high chance of approval in
the House, where Democrats control the chamber with 234 seats.
The House Ways and Means Committee late Tuesday
approved Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drug pricing bill, sending the legislation to the full House
floor for a vote expected before the end of this month.
The legislation, which passed three committees
along partisan lines, has a high chance of approval in the House, where
Democrats control the chamber with 234 seats versus 197 held by Republicans.
The Education and Labor Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee made few changes to the bill last week,
despite Republican members expressing concerns that the legislation was rushed
and dead on arrival in the Senate.
Rep. Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the Ways
and Means Committee, criticized Pelosi’s plan, saying it was highly partisan,
secretly written and has no chance of becoming law.
Pelosi’s bill will ensure a “loss [of]
live-saving cures, lost jobs and a nation that will no longer lead the world in
medical innovation,” the congressman from Texas said before the committee’s
more than 12-hour long markup Tuesday. “This is a dangerous bill with long-term
consequences and it doesn’t have to be that way.”
House Republicans have been quick to cite a
report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released earlier this
month that said Pelosi’s drug pricing plan would lead to a reduction of eight
to 15 new drugs coming to the market over 10 years.
However, the preliminary analysis also showed
Pelosi’s plan would save Medicare $345 billion over the decade,
with the largest savings coming from the provision that would permit the
Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower prices on the
costliest drugs each year.
In the Senate, Finance Committee Chairman Chuck
Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking Democrat Ron Wyden, of Oregon, have introduced their own bipartisan drug price bill that
would make changes to Medicare by adding an out-of-pocket maximum for
beneficiaries and capping drug price increases at the rate of inflation, among
other measures.
That plan, which would not allow Medicare to
negotiate prices, was backed by President Donald
Trump and has been described by lawmakers as a “middle ground”
approach to handling drug prices.
Industry trade group PhRMA, short for the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, opposes both Pelosi’s and
Grassley’s plans. The group says the measures would restrict access to
innovative medicines and fail to provide meaningful relief to seniors at the
pharmacy counter.
High prescription drug costs have become a rare
bipartisan issue, as health care remains a top issue for voters ahead of the
2020 presidential election. Congress and the Trump administration are trying to
pass legislation before the end of the year that would bring more transparency
to health-care costs and, ultimately, lower costs for consumers.
Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders had
been working on the plan for months. Pelosi has plowed ahead on her bill to
lower drug prices despite a falling-out with Trump over the impeachment
inquiry.
Last month, Pelosi said she hoped to work with
Trump on a bill to lower drug prices even after launching the inquiry the day before. In
response, Trump accused Pelosi of trying to
distract voters.
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