Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Monday 30 SepteMber 2019
Continued from Front tional Coalition on Health
In the 2016 campaign, Care, an umbrella group
Trump and Democrat Hillary representing a cross-sec-
Clinton called for authoriz- tion of organizations.
ing Medicare to negotiate Q: How would any of these
prices. But after Trump won plans reduce what I pay for
the White House, his focus prescription drugs?
shifted to the failed Repub- A: Under Pelosi's bill, private
lican drive to repeal the Af- purchasers such as health
fordable Care Act. A year insurers and employer-
went by before the admin- sponsored plans would be
istration reengaged on pre- able to get the same price
scription drugs . that Medicare negotiates.
Now, facing the 2020 elec- Medicare would focus on
tion, Trump and lawmakers the costliest medications
of both parties in Congress for individual patients and
have little to show for all the health care system as
their rhetoric about high whole.
drug prices. For there to be People on Medicare could
a deal , enough Democrats be the biggest winners.
and Republicans have to There's consensus that se-
decide they're better off niors should get an annual
delivering results instead of limit on out-of-pocket costs
election-year talking points. for medications — $2,000 in
Q: What are the major plans the Pelosi bill or $3,100 in the
on the table? Senate bill. Older people
A: On the political left is are the main consumers of
House Speaker Nancy Pe- prescription medicines
losi's plan authorizing Medi- Q: What would "Medicare
care to negotiate prices for for All" do about drug pric-
the costliest drugs. In the es?
middle is bipartisan leg- A: Under Medicare for All,
islation from Sens. Chuck the government would ne-
Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron gotiate prices for prescrip-
Wyden, D-Ore., to restrain tion drugs. House Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairwoman Rep.
drug price increases. The Whether or not they sup- Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. speaks during a legislative hearing "making prescription drugs more afford-
wild card is Trump. He port Medicare for All, Dem- able" on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019.
doesn't share the tradition- ocratic presidential candi- Associated Press
al Republican aversion to dates are calling for Medi-
government as price nego- care to negotiate prices. study — the 2015 Senate in- pay more. The bill will get Republicans?
tiator and keeps complain- Q: Why are drug prices so vestigation of costly break- a floor vote, and it could "It boils down to the crude
ing that it's unfair for Ameri- much higher in the U.S. than through drugs for hepatitis gain political momentum if political calculus of wheth-
cans to pay more than pa- in other countries? C infection — found that a pending budget analysis er in the end this will help
tients in other countries. A: It's not the case for all drugmaker Gilead Scienc- finds big savings. my side," said health econ-
There's significant over- drugs. U.S. generics are af- es priced the medication Democrats would be hard- omist Joe Antos of the busi-
lap among the major ap- fordable for the most part. to maximize profits, not to pressed to drop their de- ness-oriented American En-
proaches. The biggest concern is over foster access. mand for Medicare nego- terprise Institute. "Will Dem-
Trump, the Senate bill, and cutting-edge brand-name Q: What's the outlook for tiations. But could Trump ocrats be able to stomach
Pelosi would all limit what drugs that can effectively drug pricing legislation? agree to a more limited Donald Trump taking credit
Medicare enrollees pay manage life-changing dis- A: Impeachment could form of negotiations than for all of this? On the Trump
annually in prescription co- eases, or even cure them. suck the air out of the room. what's now in Pelosi's bill? side, it is going to be more
pays. That would be a ma- Drugs with a $100,000 cost "It is extremely difficult to Could he sell that to Senate of a legacy issue for him."q
jor change benefiting more are not unusual any more. get things done in that
than 1 million seniors with In other countries, govern- type of environment, and
high costs. ments take a leading role certainly for a president
Pelosi and the Senate bill in setting prices. who is largely incapable
would require drugmakers In the U.S., some govern- of compartmentalizing,"
to pay rebates if they raise ment programs such as said longtime Democratic
their prices to Medicare Medicaid and the vet- health care adviser Chris
beyond the inflation rate. erans' health system get Jennings. "Having said that,
Long-available medicines special discounts. But in- the work of policymakers
like insulin have seen steep surers and pharmacy ben- in power must include be-
price hikes. efit managers negotiate ing responsive to here-and-
Pelosi and the administra- on behalf of Medicare and now domestic problems."
tion would use lower inter- private health plans. Feder- Trump has pointedly re-
national prices to deter- al law protects the makers frained from criticizing Pe-
mine what Medicare pays of a new drug from generic losi's bill even as other Re-
for at least some drugs. Pe- competition, which gives publicans called it "social-
losi is echoing Trump's com- the manufacturer a lot of ist." Pelosi's legislation had
plaint that prices are unfair leverage. Pharmaceutical its first committee consid-
for Americans. companies say high initial eration last week, and the
"If they wanted to do a prices are justified to re- leading Democrat on that
deal, it's sitting right there coup the costs of research committee promoted it us-
in front of them," said John and development. ing Trump-like rhetoric that
Rother, president of the Na- However, a major case it's unfair for Americans to