Cummings wants Trump to deal for lower Medicare drug prices
“Some of you may remember back in February when President (Donald) Trump held a press conference and specifically mentioned me,” Cummings said “(Trump) said he invited me to the White House to talk about working together on lowering drug prices. But then, he suggested that I was avoiding him because it was ‘bad politics.’ Of course, that was not accurate.”“I wanted to hand this bill to President Trump personally and ask him for his support face-to-face,” Cummings continued.
“When you ran for president, you talked about the greed of the pharmaceutical industry. You said ‘they are getting away with murder.’ And you know what? You were right,” Sanders said, addressing Trump. Sanders last year unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president. “But the campaign is over, and we need him to join us in taking on the pharmaceutical industry,” the senator said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/cummings-wants-trump-to-deal-for-lower-medicare-drug-prices/2017/10/25/0620dd82-b9d6-11e7-9b93-b97043e57a22_story.html?utm_term=.9e4225d929c8Frustrated with Trump, Dems introduce drug pricing bill
On the campaign trail, Trump suggested he favored it. In January 2016, Trump told a crowd in Farmington, N.H., that the policy would save billions. “We don’t do it. Why? Because of the drug companies,” Trump said. Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) met with Trump on March 8 and gave him draft language of the bill unveiled Wednesday. The pair sent two subsequent letters to Trump on the matter but didn't hear back, and expressed their disappointment in a third letter made public on Wednesday.
“The truth is that we have made every possible effort to collaborate with you in good faith for the better part of this year,” said Cummings,. “Unfortunately, our efforts were met with radio silence.” The White House in a readout of the March meeting said Trump “expressed his desire to work” with Cummings to make drug prices more affordable. The readout notably omitted mention of letting Medicare negotiate drug prices, instead referring to Food and Drug Administration reforms and a reduction of the “regulatory burdens” on manufacturers as a way to increase competition.
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/357099-frustrated-with-trump-dems-introduce-drug-pricing-billTop Dems Introduce Bill to Allow HHS to Negotiate Lower Drug Prices for Medicare
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tx.), and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2017 - a proposal that President Donald Trump said he backs and that 92% of the American people support. This bill is cosponsored by Sens. Reed, Gillibrand, Harris, and Al Franken, and Reps. Pocan, Higgins, Ellison, Schakowsky, Kaptur, Norton, Jayapal, Cohen, Gabbard, Grijalva, Nadler, Raskin, and DeLauro.
President Trump has warned that the pharmaceutical industry is “getting away with murder,” has criticized “outrageous” drug prices, and has pledged to create a “fair and competitive bidding process” that would result in prices “coming way, way, way down.” As recently as last week, he acknowledged again that “massive” spending and lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry have driven drug prices “through the roof.” The federal government could save between $15.2 billion and $16 billion a year if Medicare Part D paid the same prices as Medicaid or VA.
The legislation would leverage the purchasing power of the government and establish a fallback price—based on what other federal agencies and foreign countries pay — to kick in automatically if negotiations are unsuccessful. It also would preserve critical protections for patient access and strengthen patient appeals processes for Part D plans. Finally, the legislation would restore rebates on drugs covered under Part D for low-income beneficiaries, which were eliminated when Part D was created. According to the Congressional Budget Office, restoring these rebates for brand-name drugs alone would save taxpayers $145 billion over ten years.
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2017/10/25/top-dems-introduce-bill-allow-hhs-negotiate-lower-drug-prices-medicare
