HEALTH CARE BRIEFING: Senate Drug Measures Cut Deficit, CBO Says
Via Bloomberg Government: Senate Democrats’ tax, climate, and drug-pricing bill would cut down federal budget deficits by $102 billion over 10 years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said.
08.04.2022
Senate Democrats’ tax, climate, and drug-pricing bill would cut down federal budget deficits by $102 billion over 10 years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said.
The deficit decrease is driven in part by a repeal of a Trump-era restriction on prescription drug rebates, generating $122 billion, and by letting Medicare negotiate the cost of high-priced drugs, which generates $102 billion. The deal’s spending includes $31 billion to provide Obamacare premium subsidies for three years along with a slew of tax breaks for clean energy.
The CBO estimate will be used both to sell the legislation to the public and by the top Senate rules official to determine whether provisions comply with the chamber’s arcane budget rules. Read more from Erik Wasson.
- Health-Care Savings: The typical US family will save roughly $1,000 per year on health insurance costs, with people getting coverage from Obamacare saving about $1,500 per year under Democrats’ pending reconciliation package, according to an analysis released Thursday by the center-left group Third Way. Read their analysis here.
- BGOV Bill Summary: Senate Democrats’ Reconciliation Package
Investors Say Bill Unfairly Picks Favorites: Biotechnology investors say Democrats’ drug pricing bill will unfairly make biologic drugs more valuable, tipping future research funds toward pricier medicines. A group of investors that includes Peter Kolchinsky, founder of RA Capital and Gaurav Gupta, founder of Ascendant BioCapital, told reporters on Wednesday if Democrats pass their drug-pricing measure, small molecule medicines will lose out, Alex Ruoff reports.
The deal Democrats are considering allows the US to negotiate for lower prices from a list of the costliest drugs to Medicare, with exemptions for small molecule drugs approved in the last nine years and biologics approved in the last 13 years. Kolchinsky and his group of investors wants Democrats to change their bill to exempt all drugs approved in the last 13 years.
See the full article here.