Would allow the Secretary of Health & Human Services to directly negotiate prices for prescription drugs and issue a competitive license allowing other manufacturers to produce the drug for Medicare in the event negotiations fail.

Rep. Richard Neal

Would lower prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries under Medicare Part D by making permanent a provision in the Affordable Care Act that limits the growth of the annual out-of-pocket spending threshold. We estimate that unless Congress acts to maintain the current calculation of the out-of-pocket threshold it will increase from $5,100 in 2019 to $6,350 in 2020, meaning some Medicare beneficiaries would have much higher out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs.

Would save money for Medicare and lower seniors’ out-of-pocket costs by reducing exclusivity for biologics in the United States from twelve years to seven. Reducing the period that a brand manufacturer could exclusively market a drug in the United States would bring competition to the marketplace sooner, driving down the cost of these often prohibitively expensive therapies.

Would allow the Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS) to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies when drugs lack sufficient competition and allow the Secretary to set a drug’s price when HHS and drug manufacturers fail to agree on one.