{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/lobbyists-campaign-cash-help-drug-industry-stymie-bid-to-restrain-medicare-prescription-costs", "Lobbyists, campaign cash help drug industry stymie bid to restrain Medicare prescription costs", "2016-10-19", "2016", "2016-10", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Lobbyists, campaign cash help drug industry stymie bid to restrain Medicare prescription costs\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t By:\u00a0 Stuart Silverstein \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tWednesday, October 19, 2016\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tWhen the Republican-controlled Congress approved a landmark program in 2003 to help seniors buy prescription drugs, it slapped on an unusual restriction: The federal government was barred from negotiating cheaper prices for those medicines. Instead, the job of holding down costs was outsourced to the insurance companies delivering the subsidized new coverage, known as\u00a0Medicare Part D.\r\nThe ban on government price bargaining, justified by supporters on free market grounds, has been derided by critics as a giant gift to the drug industry. Democratic lawmakers began introducing bills to free the government to use its vast purchasing power to negotiate better deals even before former President George W. Bush signed the Part D law, known as the Medicare Modernization Act.\r\nAll of those measures over the last 13 years have failed, almost always without ever even getting a hearing, much less being brought up for a vote. That\u2019s happened even though surveys have shown broad public support for the idea. For example,\u00a0a Kaiser Family Foundation poll\u00a0found last year that 93 percent of Democrats, and 74 percent of Republicans, favor letting the government negotiate Part D prescription drug prices.\r\nIt seems an anomaly in a democracy that an idea that is immensely popular \u2014 and calculated to save money for seniors, people with disabilities and taxpayers \u2014 gets no traction. But critics say it\u2019s no mystery, given the enormous financial influence of the drug industry, which rivals the insurance industry as the top-spending lobbying machine in Washington. It has funneled $1.96 billion into lobbying in the nation\u2019s capital since the beginning of 2003 and, in just 2015 and the first half of 2016, it has spent $468,108 per member of Congress. The industry also is a major contributor to House and Senate campaigns.\r\nContinue reading here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/lobbyists-campaign-cash-help-drug-industry-stymie-bid-to-restrain-medicare-prescription-costs"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.1935720685869455, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}