The House will vote Friday on a Democratic plan to require the government to negotiate for lower Medicare drug prices. The proposal is a response to the Republican/drug company created Medicare prescription drug program. That program included a provision barring the government from negotiating with the drug companies for lower prices.
Democrats opposed the legislation and now have a chance to rewrite the law. Party leaders say this is only a minor alteration, but Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, says it is a first step.
According to the Washington Post:
The House proposal would require the government to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry for lower prices on behalf of the private insurers that run the drug benefit program. The impact on prices could be small, however, since the government does not buy drugs directly for Medicare and manufacturers could ignore federal pressure to lower prices without consequence.
The Bush administration has long opposed the idea of direct government negotiation with drug companies for Medicare, asserting that it would impede competition among the private drug plans. Mike Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, has said he does not want to implement such a measure.
The bill leaves intact three provisions of the 2003 law that industry analysts agree played a more direct role in boosting pharmaceutical profits. These include a controversial ban on the importation of cheaper medicines from Canada, a provision that forces roughly 7 million Medicaid patients to buy drugs that are not subject to price limitations, and provisions requiring private insurance plans to remain small and numerous, which dilutes their leverage in price negotiations with drugmakers.
Rep. Marion Berry (D-Ark.), a registered pharmacist, lined up more than 170 House Democrats last year to support a Medicare-run drug plan meant to force sharply lower prices, and he said the House leadership considered seeking it now but set it aside. "It was primarily a judgment call from the speaker, to keep everybody on board," Berry said. Pelosi aides confirmed the account.
The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics says drug companies spent more on lobbying than any other industry between 1998 and 2005 -- $900 million. They donated a total of $89.9 million in the same period to federal candidates and party committees, nearly three-quarters of it to Republicans.
Keep an eye on Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), the new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who received $8,500 during the 2006 election cycle from the political action committee of the drug company Amgen.
