The Biden Administration has announced its list of the first 10 drugs that will be subject to price negotiations, a step allowed for the first time when Congress passed last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association (PhRMA), the main drugmaker lobby, blasted the law. No surprise there. But its reasoning is evidence of how perverse the US health [...]
In his budget due to be released tomorrow, President Biden will propose major changes in the way Medicare’s Part A hospital insurance program is funded. To ensure the program’s solvency, he’d shift hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenues and allocate $200 billion in cost savings from other parts of Medicare to the hospital insurance (HI) trust fund. Biden’s [...]
Timed to show that they are not just about impeaching President Trump, House Democrats released a far-reaching plan to redesign the Medicare drug benefit. But the measure, which the House plans to vote on next week, goes well beyond an attempt lower drug prices. It would redesign Medicare Part D cost-sharing and add key core benefits to fee-for-service Medicare Part [...]