{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/top-dems-introduce-bill-to-allow-hhs-to-negotiate-lower-drug-prices-for-medicare", "Top Dems Introduce Bill to Allow HHS to Negotiate Lower Drug Prices for Medicare", "2017-10-25", "2017", "2017-10", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Top Dems Introduce Bill to Allow HHS to Negotiate Lower Drug Prices for Medicare\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tPresident Claims He Supports Idea, But Has Failed to Make Good on Campaign Promise\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tWednesday, October 25, 2017\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tWASHINGTON, \u00a0Oct. 25 \u2014Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tx.), and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.)\u00a0introduced\u00a0The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2017\u00a0to direct the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs under Medicare Part D\u2014a proposal that President Donald Trump said he backs and that\u00a092% of the American people support.\r\nRanking Member Cummings:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cBefore and after the election, President Trump said over and over again that drug companies were \u2018getting away with murder\u2019 and that he wanted to give the government authority to negotiate lower drug prices. That\u2019s what our bill does. I know there have been a lot of distractions with the President\u2014a LOT of distractions. But this is what the American people want us to be working on.\u00a0 They are sick of the tweeting, the insults, the infighting, and all the rest of it. They want us to work together to lower drug prices, and they want action now. We are doing our part. We hope President Trump will do his.\u201d\r\nSenator Sanders:\u00a0\u201cWhile drug corporations make extraordinary profits, our people are dying and becoming sicker than they should because of outrageously high prices for the medicine that they need. This is unacceptable. It\u2019s time for President Trump to follow through on his promises to the American people. We must join the rest of the industrialized world by implementing prescription drug policies that work for everybody, not just the CEOs of the pharmaceutical industry.\u201d\r\nRep. Doggett: \u201cDrug pricing in America is a tangled mess, a knot that will take more than one cut to pull apart. Harnessing the purchasing power of Medicare and negotiating better deals for drugs through a process similar to that already available for our veterans is a significant first cut at the knot. Sick patients are sick and tired of seeing Congress do nothing about a problem that affects so many.\u201d\r\nRep. Welch: \u201cPutting the federal government's purchasing power to work to save seniors and the taxpayer money is simply common sense. The fact that we continue to pay retail rates for wholesale purchases is a ridiculous. It's long past time we put an end this sweetheart deal for big Pharma. If President Trump is serious about his support for this proposal, I\u2019m ready to work with him to provide urgently needed relief to consumers and taxpayers.\u201d\r\nPresident Trump has\u00a0warned\u00a0that the pharmaceutical industry is \u201cgetting away with murder,\u201d has\u00a0criticized\u201coutrageous\u201d drug prices,\u00a0and\u00a0has\u00a0pledged\u00a0to create a \u201cfair and competitive bidding process\u201d that would result in prices \u201ccoming way, way, way down.\u201d\u00a0 As recently as last week, he\u00a0acknowledged\u00a0again that \u201cmassive\u201d spending and lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry have driven drug prices \u201cthrough the roof.\u201d\r\nThe Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2017\u00a0would finally turn this rhetoric into law by allowing the government to negotiate directly with drug companies to lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries, much like the VA and Medicaid do today.\r\nCurrent law prohibits the Secretary of HHS from negotiating directly for lower prices in Medicare, even though Medicare paid for 29% of retail drug costs in 2015.\u00a0 Since Medicaid and VA are allowed to negotiate, Medicare Part D\u00a0pays, on average, 73% more than Medicaid and 80% more than VA for brand-name drugs.\u00a0 The federal government could\u00a0save\u00a0between $15.2 billion and $16 billion a year if Medicare Part D paid the same prices as Medicaid or VA.\r\nThe legislation would leverage the purchasing power of the government by using formularies to enhance competition and establish a fallback price\u2014based on what other federal agencies and foreign countries pay\u2014to 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.\r\nFinally, the legislation would restore rebates on drugs covered under Part D for low-income beneficiaries, which were eliminated when Part D was created. \u00a0According to the Congressional Budget Office, restoring these rebates for brand-name drugs alone would save taxpayers\u00a0$145 billion\u00a0over ten years. \u00a0\r\nThis 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.\u00a0\r\nThis bill is endorsed by the Alliance for Retired Americans, American Federation of Teachers, the Center for Medicare Advocacy, CREDO, Doctors for America, the Economic Policy Institute Policy Center, Families USA, Knowledge Ecology International, Medicare Rights Center, MoveOn, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, Patients for Affordable Drugs, Prescription Justice, Public Citizen, Social Security Works, and The Senior Citizens League.\r\nAlso today, Ranking Member Cummings and Rep. Welch sent a\u00a0letter\u00a0to President Trump expressing their \u201cprofound disappointment\u201d that the President failed to work with them in any way after they went to the White House at the President\u2019s invitation in March, personally presented him with a draft of the bill, and asked for his endorsement and any feedback he had on the proposal. \u00a0Their letter today followed two previous letters they sent to the President onApril 20, 2017\u00a0and\u00a0June 21, 2017\u00a0seeking to work together in a bipartisan manner. \u00a0The President failed to respond to either of those previous letter as well.", 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/press-releases/top-dems-introduce-bill-to-allow-hhs-to-negotiate-lower-drug-prices-for-medicare"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7525232397019863, "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"}