Democrats Cautiously Optimistic About Drug Pricing Reform in 2023

Despite a split Congress beginning next year, US Democrats are cautiously hopeful about their drug pricing efforts in the coming years. This is because of the provision in the Inflation Reduction Act that will give Medicare the ability to negotiate some drug prices over the next ten years. If negotiations with Medicare go well, some Democrats expect this might act as a useful slippery slope to give private payers the power to negotiate too.

According to Peter Welch (D-VT), “The slippery slope is very powerful. If [negotiation] works in Medicare, it can work in the private market. Once you have the tool, and it gets implemented, and people get to experience lower rates, and it doesn’t harm health outcomes, it’s going to be really hard to reverse that.”

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(Source: Politico, December 29^th, 2022)