House Democrats passed a sweeping measure to lower prescription drug prices Thursday, the latest in the party’s messaging strategy to show it can fulfill campaign promises while pursuing impeachment against President Trump.
The bill, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, lets the government negotiate the prices of some of the most expensive drugs, penalizes companies that won’t comply, and caps what seniors pay for their medicines. It also would add vision, dental, and hearing aids to the list of benefits covered by Medicare.
The bill passed 230-192 despite months of intraparty fighting, in which members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus felt left out of the process and wanted the bill to be much harsher on the pharmaceutical industry than Democratic leaders did. Liberals managed to secure a couple of wins with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, including raising the minimum number of drugs to be negotiated from 35 to 50. They threatened to vote against the measure otherwise and would have succeeded at sinking the bill with only 18 “nay” votes.
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, two centrists, were the only Republicans voting in favor of Pelosi’s bill. Despite the dispute within the party, all Democrats voted in favor.
The bill won’t make it past the House. Though President Trump wanted to make drug pricing a priority and talked about letting the government negotiate prices when he ran for the White House in 2016, he threatened to veto the Democrats’ bill.
Democrats, in turn, opted to pursue a partisan approach to bringing down drug prices. They dared the president to support their bill by adding in some of the administration’s ideas, such as tying drug prices to those paid in other developed nations. They frequently reminded Trump during public hearings of the campaign promises he made.
Though Trump soured on working with Democrats in part because of impeachment, the president had already abandoned the idea of letting the government negotiate drug prices soon after he took office. The bill also faced the broader political reality that it would never get past Republicans.
GOP lawmakers have long opposed direct negotiation of drug prices, saying that doing so would stifle innovation of future cures and treatments. They frequently noted during floor debate Thursday that the Congressional Budget Office score of an earlier version of the bill showed that 38 fewer drugs would hit the market over 20 years if it were to become law. They dubbed Pelosi’s legislation the “Fewer Cures Act.”
Rep. Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, accused Democrats of creating a “toxic atmosphere” for pursuing impeachment and then working to pass a bill he called “deader than a doornail.”
Republicans introduced a counterbid prescription drug pricing bill, called the Lower Costs, More Cures Act, which used portions of another bill that has bipartisan and White House support in the Senate. Republican leaders urged lawmakers to support it, saying that Congress should be working on bills that could actually get passed.
“It could be on the president’s desk tomorrow. Senior citizens could be paying less for prescription drug prices this very month, if only Speaker Pelosi would abandon her extreme partisan plans,” said Steve Scalise, the minority whip, in a statement.
It’s not clear the bipartisan bill would have a shot even without Thursday’s vote. Although it may still get revisited in the House, its future is uncertain because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hasn’t committed to bringing it to the floor.
Organizations such as AARP and Planned Parenthood supported the Pelosi bill, but it otherwise didn’t receive widespread endorsement by patient organizations.
The Pelosi bill is meant to signal to voters that Democrats would keep the promises they made to voters to lower drug prices and that they are serious about doing so if voters elect a member of their party to the White House in 2020.
“There’s an understanding that the bill is somewhat of a political endeavor and meant to show Democrats can go further than Trump,” one source close to discussions with outside groups told the Washington Examiner.
Every top-polling Democrat supports letting the government negotiate drug prices, but more liberal candidates such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders would favor going much further than the House bill.
