President Trump’s budget request includes provisions that could affect drug prices. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
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Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
President Trump’s proposed budget flirts with combating high prescription drug prices, but industry watchers say the tweaks to Medicare and Medicaid do little more than dance around the edges of the problem.
The White House’s proposal, which comes after Congress passed a two-year spending deal Friday, though, sets the tone for the administration’s focus on prescription drugs.
“Drug costs are a populist issue for the president,” and he’s made it clear to his staff that progress needs to be made this year, said Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere Health, a health care consulting firm.
The proposal would cut billions of dollars in drug spending in the federal Medicare program, which provides health care for about 60 million people age 65 and older or younger patients with disabilities. The budget would also alter drug spending in Medicaid’s safety-net program for nearly 70 million Americans. The sheer size of the federal government’s Medicare and Medicaid programs means any drug pricing tweaks that do get made are meaningful — just not necessarily groundbreaking.
“The main question is, how far are they actually going to go in dealing with the underlying problem?” said Paul Van de Water, who spent nearly two decades in the Congressional Budget Office and is now a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Most of the proposals for Medicare, for example, move money around rather than force a drop in prices, Van de Water said.
Health Care
What The Budget Deal Means For Medicare Drug Prices
What The Budget Deal Means For Medicare Drug Prices
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