House gives Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug costs

WASHINGTON » Sharpening their 2020 election message, House Democrats on Thursday pushed through legislation that would empower Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and offer new benefits for seniors.

The vote along party lines was 230-192.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bill would cap Medicare recipients’ out- ofpocket costs for medicines at $2,000 a year. It would use about $360 billion of its projected 10-year savings from lower drug costs to establish Medicare coverage for dental care, hearing and vision, filling major gaps for seniors. But the legislation has no chance of passing the Republican- controlled Senate, and the White House has issued a veto threat. Still, Democrats saw a victory in the message their bill sends to voters.

“I think that it is going to be too hot to handle for the Republicans,” said Pelosi, D- Calif.

She is claiming bragging rights because her bill would deliver on the promise that Donald Trump made as a candidate in 2016, when he said he would “negotiate like crazy” to lower prescription drug prices for Medicare recipients. It’s a pledge that Trump has backed away from as president.

For months, Pelosi’s office and the White House had talked privately about Medicare negotiations. But the sides went their own ways partly because administration officials concluded her approach could never win support among congressional Republicans. Trump now favors a bipartisan compromise in the Senate that would limit drug price increases and cap what seniors pay out of pocket, but would not authorize Medicare negotiations.

Negotiations are “the heart of the matter,” Pelosi insisted. High prescription drug prices consistently register as the public’s top health care concern. But it’s unclear in a capital divided over Trump’s impeachment that any major legislation will pass before next year’s elections.

Pelosi’s bill “is a serious proposal but everyone knows that the Senate isn’t going to go for it,” said John Rother, CEO of the National Coalition on Health.