CNBC August 12, 2022
Key Points
– Medicare is gaining the power to negotiate prices for certain drugs and punish pharmaceutical companies that don’t play by the rules.
– The legislation represents a historic expansion of Medicare’s power that was fiercely opposed by the pharmaceutical industry.
– But the negotiation powers are limited in scope, and some lawmakers argue that legislation doesn’t go far enough.
Medicare is poised to renegotiate the prices of some of its most expensive drugs through a historic expansion of its power, which could reduce costs for many seniors as well as federal spending on its prescription drug plan.
The changes are tucked inside a massive spending-and-tax bill in Congress that includes $433 billion in investments in health-care and clean...