Democrats reportedly plan to use an infrastructure package to lower drug prices, a long-time goal of the party.
In a developing bill to address infrastructure, House Democrat leaders intend to include a measure that would allow the secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs, according to The Hill sources.
First passed by the House in 2019, the bill would provide about $450 billion in drug-price savings that then could help fund an infrastructure package worth as high as $3 trillion.
Democrats for years have complained about drug costs and how Medicare is prohibited from negotiating lower prices.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., last week supported the idea of including the drug pricing measure in the infrastructure package.
"If we were able to do that, we could save almost a half a trillion dollars," Pelosi said. "We would be missing an opportunity if we did not include lowering the cost of prescription drugs."
Republicans and the pharmaceutical industry, however, strongly oppose the bill, known as H.R. 3. Some companies warn it would hamper innovation that leads to new drug development.
There are questions whether the bill could pass in a Senate split evenly along party lines. Some House Democrat committee staff recently told outside groups they were unsure if H.R. 3 can get through the Senate, according to a source familiar with the conversations.
"There is an urgent need to address drug prices, and Democrats are united on this front," a spokesperson for Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee said when asked about those comments. "H.R. 3 is urgent, unfinished business from last Congress, and we are working hard to get this done for the American people."
Spokespeople for Sen. Joe Manchin, W.Va., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., did not respond when asked if the moderate Democrats supported including a drug-pricing measure in an infrastructure package.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., represents a state that is home to many prominent pharmaceutical companies. In 2019, Menendez voted against a measure to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices in the Senate Finance Committee.
Menendez's office was noncommittal when asked about an infrastructure package including H.R. 3.
"While we haven't seen any final language, I can tell you that the senator supports efforts that will create actual savings for consumers and not just for the health care system or government," Menendez spokesman Robert Julien said.
Julien would not say if Menendez viewed H.R. 3 as meeting that standard.
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., a strong proponent of drug-pricing legislation, admitted "we have a fight on our hands to get this passed."
"We've got a Senate with a razor-thin margin that we hope will pass it," said Welch, who added Democrats have a very small margin in the House, too.
When asked if he was worried about the bill passing through the Senate, Welch said that was not his "problem" but an issue for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Some progressive lawmakers feel the bill does not go far enough, and want to expand the number of drugs that are subject to negotiations.
The Hill cited a source saying the White House had been in touch with lawmakers about potential changes to the bill, though such changes remained unclear. A White House spokesman declined to comment.
Sen.s Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sponsored bipartisan legislation to lower drug prices in 2019. The agreement did not include the ability for Medicare to negotiate lower prices, but did allow limiting price increases for Medicare drugs to the rate of inflation.
"There's no reason why in one week we couldn't get that bill passed and we don't have to wait until several weeks down the road to do something like that," Grassley said Wednesday on the Senate floor. "It's bipartisan, we ought to move on that."
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., recently introduced a bill to repeal the ban on Medicare negotiating drug prices. Unlike the House bill, Klobuchar's measure does not penalize drug companies unwilling to negotiate. The bill was co-sponsored by Manchin, among others.
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