PELOSI DRUG PRICE PLAN EXPECTED THIS WEEK
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is expected to release her long-awaited plan this week to address prescription drug costs, according to congressional staff.
A draft summary of the proposal that circulated last week would allow the government to negotiate prices with manufacturers on 250 drugs and impose sweeping fines on companies that failed to participate. The negotiated price – which manufacturers say would be de facto price controls – also would extend to the prices of drugs sold through commercial insurance.
Two House committees plan to vote on Pelosi’s bill in the coming weeks, setting up a potential vote on the House floor by the end of October. In an apparent nod to President Donald Trump’s proposal to base physician-administered drug prices on an index of prices paid in certain European countries, Pelosi would copy that formulation for Medicare Part D drugs, too.