Dems reach drug price deal; Biden upbeat on Manchin
WASHINGTON — Democrats reached agreement Tuesday on plan to lower prescription drug costs for 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, D-N.Y., announced the deal, which is 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, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.
Biden sounded upbeat about winning overall backing from another holdout, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who threw the president’s plan in flux this week by refusing to endorse it.
“He will vote for this,” Biden said of Manchin during remarks at a global climate summit in Scotland.
Democrats are rushing to overcome party battles and finish a final draft of Biden’s plan.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said privately she expects to wrap up a final 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.
Blame is pointing all around as negotiations over Biden’s ambitious agenda 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, ‘OK, we elected Democrats to have the majority in the House, the Senate and the presidency. They should be getting things done,’ ” said Democratic Rep. Elaine
Luria, who represents a swing district in Virginia.
Still, Democrats shored up at least one unsettled provision — the prescription drug deal that had been scrapped from Biden’s framework in a blow to Democrats’ yearslong effort to reduce pharmaceutical costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower prices.
“It’s a big step in helping the American people deal with the price of drugs,” Schumer said at the Capitol.
Schumer added that for the first time, Medicare will be able to negotiate prescription drug prices in its Part B and Part D program.
Democrats later said 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 will be retroactive to Oct. 1.
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.”