Senate To Consider Bill for Medicare Rx Price Negotiations
The Senate Finance Committee plans to consider legislation that would allow the federal government to negotiate prices directly with pharmaceutical companies under the Medicare prescription drug benefit -- a practice prohibited by the 2003 Medicare law -- "as soon as possible" after the spring recess, according to a Democratic committee aide, CongressDaily reports.
According to CongressDaily, other sources said that the bill produced by the committee "will be less stringent" than similar legislation approved by the House (Johnson, CongressDaily, 3/29). The House in January passed a bill (HR 4) that would require the HHS secretary to negotiate prices directly with pharmaceutical companies under the Medicare prescription drug benefit and report to Congress in six months (California Healthline, 1/16).
Senate Republican aides said the Senate version of the bill could take the form of a "sense of the Senate" resolution that states the federal government should have the ability to negotiate prices directly with pharmaceutical companies under the Medicare prescription drug benefit.
The Democratic committee aide said that committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) "has certainly said that the ban on negotiating drug prices in the Medicare drug benefit should be lifted" and has discussed with colleagues "what additional provisions may or may not make the benefit work better for seniors." However, the aide could not confirm whether the legislation would take the form of a resolution.
After the spring recess and a vote on legislation that would expand federal funds for embryonic stem cell research, the full Senate will consider the bill, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). "Assuming Reid sticks to that schedule, the Finance Committee would have only a few weeks, at most, to produce a bill," CongressDaily reports.
Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) opposes legislation that would allow the federal government to negotiate prices directly with pharmaceutical companies under the Medicare prescription drug benefit, and Senate Republican leaders "are poised for a fight over the drug negotiation proposal, which they say has lost steam since the midterm elections," according to CongressDaily (CongressDaily, 3/29).