President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland on December 14, 2023.
Chris Kleponis | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The federal Medicare program must negotiate prices for at least 50 prescription drugs each year, up from the current goal of 20, President Joe Biden said Wednesday.
This is one of several new health care policy proposals Biden will outline during his State of the Union address on Thursday, according to a fact sheet released by the White House on Wednesday. Many of these efforts are aimed at expanding portions of the FRA geared toward making drugs more affordable for seniors and could reduce pharmaceutical industry profits.
“Medicare should not be limited to negotiating just 20 drugs a year. Instead, the President proposes that Medicare should be able to negotiate the prices of key drugs that seniors rely on, such as those used to treat heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.” Read the fact sheet.
Biden has made lowering US drug prices a central plank of his health care agenda and 2024 re-election platform. But the fate of his new proposals will be in the hands of a divided Congress, making it highly uncertain whether they will pass into law. .a
The president's call to increase the number of drugs eligible for negotiations with Medicare is likely to face the fiercest backlash from the drug industry.
The Biden administration is already locked in a bitter legal battle with several drugmakers over the talks. The administration has scored early victories in two separate cases over the issue this year, but the industry aims to take the issue to the Supreme Court.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began the negotiation process last fall when it revealed the first 10 drugs subject to price talks with Medicare. Negotiations on these drugs will end this fall, with the new prices taking effect in 2026
After the initial round of talks, Medicare can negotiate prices for 15 more drugs that will take effect in 2027 and an additional 15 drugs after that to take effect in 2028. Under the current structure, that number rises to 20 drugs negotiated annually starting in 2028. 2029.
Last year, Biden indicated that he wanted to subject more drugs to negotiations. Wednesday is the first time his administration has set a higher target number. a
Neera Tanden, who serves as the president's domestic policy adviser, said during a call with reporters on Wednesday that the change “will not only save taxpayers billions of dollars, but more importantly, it will save lives and give seniors the breathing space they need.” .
The White House fact sheet indicated that the president's budget reduces federal spending by $200 billion. This may increase the number of drugs that Medicare can choose to negotiate and bring more drugs into the negotiation process sooner.
The White House did not disclose whether the number of drugs would gradually increase to 50 after several years under the proposal, or whether this new number would be implemented starting in 2029. A senior administration official told reporters on Wednesday that the president looks forward to working with Congress. Details of the proposal.
“We have built a system that we are confident works and will provide lower prices to the American people, and we believe we can scale that,” the administration official said.
Other policy proposals include measures to cap Medicare copayments at $2 for common generic drugs and expand the $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket drug costs beyond Medicare to include all private plans.
Biden also wants to expand another provision of the inflation-reducing law that requires drugmakers to pay rebates to Medicare when their drug prices rise faster than inflation. The president wants the policy to apply to commercial drugs, not just drugs sold to Medicare.
