WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats reached agreement on a plan to lower prescription drug costs for most older people, capping out-of-pocket Medicare costs at $2,000 and reducing the price of insulin, salvaging a campaign promise as part of President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion domestic policy proposal.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday announced the deal on one of the few remaining provisions that needed to be resolved in Biden’s big package as the party moves closer to wrapping up negotiations. Schumer acknowledged it’s not as sweeping as Democrats had hoped for, but a compromise struck with one key holdout Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
Biden sounded upbeat about winning overall backing from another holdout, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who threw the president’s plan in doubt by refusing to endorse it.
“He will vote for this,” Biden said of Manchin during remarks at a global climate summit in Scotland. Biden said the senator was looking at the fine print of the legislation, “but I think we’ll get there.”
Democrats are rushing to overcome party battles and finish a final draft of Biden’s plan. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had hoped to wrap up the draft and pave the way for voting as soon as Thursday on the overall package, according to her remarks at a closed-door caucus meeting. But no votes have been scheduled.
Fingers are pointing all around as negotiations over Biden’s ambitious package have dragged on, with Democrats unable to pass the bill. Progressive and centrist lawmakers, particularly Manchin and Sinema, have fought over details of the sprawling 1,600-page package.
“I think what most people think: The situation is like, ‘Okay, we elected Democrats to have the majority in the House, the Senate and the presidency. They should be getting things done,’” Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria, who represents a swing district in Virginia, told reporters at the Capitol.
Still, Democrats shored up at least one unsettled provision — reviving a prescription drug deal that had been scrapped from Biden’s framework in a blow to Democrats’ years-long effort to reduce pharmaceutical costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower prices.
“It’s not everything we all want. Many of us would have wanted to go much further, but it’s a big step in helping the American people deal with the price of drugs,” Schumer said at the Capitol.
Schumer said that for the first time, Medicare will be able to negotiate prescription drug prices in its Part B and Part D programs. The $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket costs would benefit those older Americans with the Part D prescription drug benefit, who number some 48 million, Democrats said.
And there would be “a new monthly cap on the price of insulin, and an ‘inflation’ rebate policy to protect consumers from egregious annual increases in prices,” Schumer said. The insulin prices would fall from as high as $600 a dose to $35.
The penalties on drug manufacturers for raising prices beyond the inflation rate begin this year.
Sinema’s office issued a statement saying the senator “welcomes a new agreement on a historic, transformative Medicare drug negotiation plan that will reduce out-of-pocket costs for seniors.”
AARP, the powerful organization for older Americans, signaled support as it waits for details. CEO Jo Ann Jenkins said in a statement there was “no greater issue affecting the pocketbooks of seniors on Medicare than the ever-increasing costs of prescription drugs.”
But Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America president and CEO Stephen J. Ubl said the proposal “gives the government the power to dictate how much a medicine is worth.” The pharmaceutical lobby warned it “threatens innovation.”
