Partisan anger took the stage during a congressional hearing dedicated to high drug prices, with House Democrats sounding off on what they describe as Republican inaction on the issue.
The House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee held its first hearing on drug prices Wednesday afternoon. Several polls have shown that the high prices of both brand name and generic drugs are a top concern for the public.
Part of the hearing focused on potential solutions, but anger at Republicans was a prevailing theme.
“Democrats are ready to take action to address this crisis, but House Republicans are continuing to pretend it does not exist,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.
Democrats have called on Republicans “to hold hearings on the price gouging and since they haven’t. That is why we are here today,” added Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md.
Democrats in both chambers have introduced legislation to tackle the issue, but it has not advanced in either GOP-controlled chamber.
There has been some bipartisan action on the issue, with a provision attached to legislation passed last month that raised the debt limit. The provision originally introduced by Cummings as a separate bill requires generic drug makers to offer rebates to Medicaid if the price of a drug goes past the price of inflation.
The House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing on drug prices early next year after multiple requests from Democrats on the panel. The committee did not return a request for comment on the Democratic criticism.
Drug prices were also a hot topic in the Senate confirmation hearing for Robert Califf, President Obama’s pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., asked Califf about whether the FDA could do more to approve generic drugs faster to increase competition.
However, no wide-sweeping bipartisan legislation is on the horizon, and a House lawmaker wanted Obama to employ what has become a common tactic for the president.
“We need to be asking the administration, as we have been in so many areas, to use its full executive power to do what it can within existing laws,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas.
He said agencies such as the FDA and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should be working to do what they can.
Obama has employed executive actions in several policy areas, most notoriously on immigration. Last year, the president issued several orders to shield about 5 million immigrants from deportation, but a federal court struck down his orders.
Many Republicans criticized the executive actions, saying they reeked of executive overreach.
It isn’t understood what federal agencies could do that doesn’t need congressional intervention.
A common reform proposed by Democrats is to have Medicare negotiate with drug companies for cheaper prescription drug prices. However, when Congress passed the law creating Medicare Part D, the program’s prescription drug program, it included a provision that prohibited negotiation.
The FDA is not allowed to take into account a drug’s cost when it decides on whether it should go to market.
But the agency could help out by reimporting drugs from overseas to spur competition among generic drugs, said Dr. Jeremy Greene, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. A primary reason generic prices are rising is a lack of competition for older products.
The FDA is able to quickly import drugs from overseas if there is a shortage of a product, but it is not clear if that same power can be used to increase competition. Greene said Republicans have a big part to play in any solution.
“We are not talking about classic elements of responses that need to be solely Democratic and not Republican,” he said. “We are talking about competition and free-market policy.”
