September 9, 2021

The Biden administration recently announced its plan to “lower prescription-drug prices” by way of Medicare negotiation—but there’s a catch. President Biden and congressional lawmakers negotiating the current massive reconciliation package want you to believe that the government and patients can save money on drug prices by simply capping the list price of Medicare drugs. But they don’t tell you that this would restrict seniors’ access to medicines and hinder future drugs from coming to market.

They’ve led with misleading messaging that Americans support negotiation, but the truth is that once Americans learn about the trade-offs and grim reality of such a Medicare overhaul, they quickly change their tune.

According to a recent polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 65% of Americans oppose negotiations if they limit access to prescription drugs or lead to less research and development of new drugs. In fact, 76% of Americans actually oppose H.R. 3—Nancy Pelosi’s harmful healthcare bill—if it causes delays in access to new prescription drugs.

Since 2003, non-interference has allowed private sector stakeholders to negotiate deals on medicines without “interference” from a federal government. Additionally, non-interference has succeeded in maximizing medicine and coverage options for patients by letting the experts do their jobs. Without these regulations, arbitrary government price caps would skew free-market forces and further complicate the Medicare landscape.

So why is the current drug pricing debate supported by President Biden and Democrats, yet so widely opposed by voters? Put simply, the ends—expanding government and federalizing healthcare—justify their means.

We know the current system works because there is zero countervailing evidence to the contrary. No other country in the world has the kind of government interference that the Biden administration proposed while also offering the full suite of medicines, flexible coverage options, and benefits like the U.S. does.

In fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed that the government would only save money by sacrificing choice and patient access through a national formulary—a list of acceptable medicines the government is willing to pay for. It would also lead toother policies where patients can’t take what their doctor prescribed until they try cheaper options first.

Right now, 90% of seniors report being “very satisfied” with their Medicare Part D coverage and want to protect it. When made aware of the trade-offs of current drug pricing proposals, their primary concern instead centers around capping rising out-of-pocket costs, controlled by middlemen and insurers, not drug prices negotiated above their heads.

In reality, patients don’t pay more at the pharmacy counter because of high list prices. They pay more when insurers and Pharmacy Benefit Managers pocket more than their fair share of the generous discounts they receive from drug manufacturers. And interestingly enough, the dishonesty of these middlemen, in turn, continues to push list prices higher year after year in a vicious cycle that won’t end unless the glut is cleared from the system and middlemen go back to prioritizing patients. If President Biden and progressive lawmakers truly want to put patients first instead of offsetting their ambitious new spending goals, they would streamline this system and ensure “patient discounts” are delivered to the patients themselves, not middlemen.

President Bidenand Democrats must listen to the American people, make healthcare reform a separate issue, and prioritize delivering real savings to patients.