Medicare's ability to negotiate drug prices as a group

[SHRED]

This was taken away by W and the Repuke Congress.
I've heard very little about this from the Democrats sadly.

It's been over a decade for goodness sake so when will this be reinstated?

I know Bernie favors this.
Where does Hillary stand?

..

[PatrickforO]

1. This is why so many people are getting ready to leave the Democratic party. Sadly, establishment

Dems are gutless wonders when it comes to things like this, that would actually help a wide swath of the American people.

[onecaliberal]

2. Hillary is pro money pro corporation and anti regulation. It's easy to figure

[Hoyt]

3. We'd be better off with that, but the Drug Plans themselves can and do negotiate prices.

Again, we'd be better off if Medicare did it directly, but only if the government is ready to say No to even life saving meds. My guess is, they aren't ready to that.

[PoliticAverse]

4. When it wasn't repealed at the time the ACA was passed (repealing it was part of Obama's...

campaign positions) that indicated how little support it had even among Democrats.

[Yuugal]

5. Wrong.

In fact, it was one of the few things reps would consider. As I remember it, didn't Obama have to send Rahm scurrying around the senate to squash that amendment?

[elleng]

6. Right. Very sad.

Fortunately, feds DO negotiate/enable negotiation for Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan. https://www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/healthcare/

[PoliticAverse]

7. The Clinton campaign position on this issue can be found here...

"Allow Medicare to negotiate drug and biologic prices."

Scroll to the bottom at:

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/factsheets/2015/09/21/hillary-clinton-plan-for-lowering-prescription-drug-costs/

[djean111]

9. The thing is, not many of us believe that. n/t

[BernieforPres2016]

8. I read a study on this that is available online.

From a study called "Mirror Mirror on the Wall" that is available online:

<On average, a brand-name drug that costs $83 under Medicare Part D would cost $48 under Medicaid and $46 under VHA. Medicare Part D paid $36 billion to brand-name manufacturers in 2010.[33] If Medicare Part D benefited from the same rebates over brand-name drugs as Medicaid, the program would have saved $15.2 billion a year on the price of brand-name drugs.>

There is a chart that shows the U.S. spending by far the highest amount on prescription drugs of any OECD country at just over $1000 per capita, even though the U.S. has the highest non-compliance rate for filling prescriptions (because of people who can't afford them) at 19% versus 2% to 13% for other OECD countries. This figure was 26% in the U.S. before the ACA. The average per capital expenditure on prescription for the second highest OEC country (Canada) was less than $800 and the OECD average was right at $500.