President Joe Biden last week called on U.S. lawmakers to enact legislation aimed at lowering drug prices, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and imposing penalties on drugmakers that raise prices faster than inflation.
The Democratic president’s remarks laid out his vision to help reduce the costs for prescription medications as part of the Build Back Better agenda he is seeking to push through Congress as the nation continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden’s remarks from the White House were less a set of new policy ideas than a reminder that he is eager to make headway on an issue of keen concern to voters — one he describes as critical to helping Americans recover economically from the pandemic.
“Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer — they don’t care if you’re Democrat or Republican,” Biden said in the East Room. “This is about whether or not you and your loved ones can afford prescription drugs.”
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Biden, accusing drugmakers of ‘jacking up prices,’ calls for action
President Biden speaks on prescription drug prices at the White House on Thursday. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Amy Goldstein
Yesterday at 6:28 p.m. EDT
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President Biden stepped up his battle over drug costs on Thursday, calling on Congress to pass legislation that would let Medicare negotiate directly with pharmaceutical manufacturers and penalize drugmakers that increase prices faster than inflation.
Biden’s remarks from the White House were less a set of new policy ideas than a reminder that he is eager to make headway on an issue of keen concern to voters — one he describes as critical to helping Americans recover economically from the pandemic.
“Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer — they don’t care if you’re Democrat or Republican,” Biden said in the East Room. “This is about whether or not you and your loved ones can afford prescription drugs.”
That position hoghlights the considerable difference between the parties, and among powerful interest groups, over how big a role the government should play in taming drug costs.
Biden’s initiative comes at a delicate time, as drugmakers have earned some of their best headlines in years for the lightning-fast development of coronavirus vaccines.
Most funding came from government entities for making COVID-19 vaccines.
In the U.S., Operation Warp Speed (OWS) partnered with multiple institutions, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to develop, manufacture, and distribute 300 million doses, providing resources and assuming the financial risk to allow companies to produce and stockpile vaccine doses even before companies knew if their vaccine is going to work.
Also, by investing in multiple companies and vaccine platforms at once, OWS increased the odds of having a vaccine, or vaccines, available by the beginning of 2021.
The European Commission also funded several vaccine candidates and worked with others in pledging $8 billion for COVID-19 research.
Biden on Thursday lauded drugmakers for their life-saving work developing the COVID-19 vaccines.
"But we can make a distinction between developing these breakthroughs and jacking up prices on a range of medications for a range of everyday diseases and conditions," said Biden, noting that U.S. prescription drug costs were higher than any other nation in the world by two to three times.
Drugmakers, reeling from a reduction in doctor visits and demand for some drugs amid the pandemic, raised prices on more than 500 medicines, an analysis released in January showed.
After passing a $1.9 trillion coronavirus-related bill in March, Democrats adopted a two-pronged strategy – a $1 trillion hard infrastructure plan that passed the Senate this week and a forthcoming $3.5 trillion spending measure for so-called human infrastructure.
That spending plan would expand Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing benefits as well as lower the eligibility age, among other healthcare, climate and childcare provisions.
More than 61.2 million people have coverage under the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Biden wants CMS to be able to negotiate for a subset of the highest-cost drugs that have no competitors.
"We’re going to provide that competition through Medicare. Medicare is going to negotiate a fair price," he said. "Drug companies would have to sell their drugs to all distributors at the Medicare price or face up to a 95 percent excise tax. The savings for employers and employees would be billions of dollars a year."
Biden’s proposal is rousing opposition from drug companies. The Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade association, called it a "misguided approach."
"The price controls proposed by the Biden administration are nothing more than a tax on the research investments that have made break-throughs, like the COVID vaccines, possible," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce Vice President Neil Bradley. "Price controls will result in less research investment and fewer U.S. jobs, leaving America unprepared for the next public health crisis and delaying the development of treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s and many other diseases."
“Bravo to President Biden for taking on Big Pharma price gouging today, calling on Congress to enact commonsense measures which will lower drug costs for the American people," said Max Richtman, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. "The President’s proposals honor what seniors and their advocates have been seeking for years – first and foremost, allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with drug-makers."
The senior advocacy group applauded Biden’s call to use savings from price negotiation to enact a long-awaited expansion of Medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing coverage.
Congress should heed the President’s message and deliver Americans relief from punishing drug prices — and provide seniors with care for their eyes, ears, and teeth, which are the gateways to improved overall health," said Richtman. "After years of advocacy and discussion of these issues, seniors deserve action now.”
But the outbreak of the highly contagious disease, which upended the economy and has so far killed more than 617,000 people in the United States, also drew renewed attention to healthcare costs.
Biden told the story of a woman he had met whose insulin cost $32 a vial in 2001, saying that same vial now costs $280.
In a reflection of the turbulent political climate on health matters, Biden began his comments by excoriating those, including Republican governors, who are politicizing coronavirus mask requirements, citing a recent incident in Tennessee where doctors and nurses were threatened after testifying before a school board.
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