Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday announced that Democrats had reached an agreement on prescription drug pricing provisions in their recently …
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday announced that Democrats had reached an agreement on prescription drug pricing provisions in their recently reduced $1.75 trillion reconciliation bill. The deal was announced by a statement posted to the speaker’s website. “For a generation, House Democrats have been fighting to deliver real drug price negotiations that will lower costs,” Pelosi said. “With today’s agreement on strong lower drug price provisions for the Build Back Better Act, Democrats have a path forward to make good on this transformational agenda for our seniors.” She then turned to the details of the new plan, which Pelosi said would “halt Big Pharma’s outrageous price hikes above inflation, not just for seniors but for all Americans.” Originally, Democrats hoped to include an ambitious, wide-reaching policy that would have set federal price caps on prescription drugs. The proposed price caps would have set them at levels comparable to what other developed countries pay for the same medication. In Europe, many countries impose price caps on medications, causing consumer prices for prescription drugs to be substantially lower; In the United States no such restrictions exist, allowing pharmaceutical companies to charge extremely high prices when compared to European nations.
