House Democrats Ready to Block GOP on Drug Price Vote

House Democrats on Thursday will take their first big step towards reducing drug prices, but not before making life difficult for the world. The Republicans who helped them get there.

The House will vote on three bipartite drug price bills that Democratic leaders have combined with a package of proposals to reverse the Trump administration's efforts to undermine Obamacare. This decision is likely to force most Republicans to break the pack and stand as an opponent of drug cost control efforts. Mixing Obamacare with drug pricing would also have the effect of reducing the chances of the bill in the Senate controlled by the GOP.

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This tactic has angered Republicans who spent months negotiating legislation to crack down on drug companies and even whispered to the moderate Democrats that they wanted to show a bipartisan look at a top priority in health care.

"I'm not at all happy at all," said Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), Whose bill limiting the ability of generic drug manufacturers to block competitors was included in the package. "They know we will not be able to support that, and for them, put it in there I think it's just a bad policy."

House Democrats defend the maneuver as a budgetary necessity. The trio of drug price bills would save about $ 4 billion over a decade, making it a valuable compensation for Obamacare bills, which call for an increase in federal spending to consolidate drug costs. Medicare markets and cancel the reductions imposed by the administration.

None of the drug pricing measures should significantly reduce the cost of drugs. But they would limit the anticompetitive behavior of pharmaceutical companies and answer a problem that, according to polls, resonates with voters of all political stripes.

Republican Energy and Trade Commission that unanimously Last month, Democratic deputies supported the bills at the House Democratic Committee's committee meeting in a closed-door vote. They accused them of sacrificing good legislation to get political points.

"It should not be that way," said commission representative Greg Walden (R-Ore.). "But they're just waiting to cut TV commercials."

Negative feelings could fit into other common political priorities such as protecting patients against "unexpected" medical bills and a series of key extensions of health care policy.

"For the Republicans, they agreed, we have already done so, but we will have to trust you again," said Rodney Whitlock, Health Consultant and former GOP Congress Assistant. "It's the first time." "There's a second time, there will not be a third one."

The inclusion of Obamacare provisions makes it almost certain that the Senate will not consider the combined set, leaving drug price measures in limbo.

Democratic House leaders plan to revive these bills later this year and turn them into more general legislation, to be absolutely adopted, said a person familiar with the thought. Yet, this could prove risky and delay the measures up to six months.

"Generally, the House is putting itself in a stronger bargaining position with the Senate when they are doing bipartite work," Whitlock said. "It's actually saying that they're not going to be."

Democratic leaders concluded that the political benefits of designing a single set of health care outweighed those risks, according to people familiar with the strategy, especially on an issue that the party has placed at the heart of its platform in anticipation of the 2020 elections.

Democrats have already found a handful of Republicans willing to overthrow the Trump administration on health care. Last week, four moderate Republicans broke the ranks of legislation overturning Trump's guidelines encouraging states to avoid the essential protections of Obamacare patients.

But Democrats were also worried that the GOP would grab a bipartisan vote on the price of drugs, evidence that President Donald Trump is following through on his promises to cut the costs of pharmaceuticals. This could be costly for Democrats to negotiate on larger priorities, such as allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with drug manufacturers.

And the tactic puts the Senate on the spot, making Republican leaders seem to hinder advances in drug pricing if they do not accept the House package.

"I would be very surprised that ACA's business survives this [House and Senate] European conference unless the Democrats finally decide not to agree and live to fight another day, "said a drug lobbyist Michael Werner, who put pressure on some of the pharmaceutical bills. "We have about a year left before the end of the political season, and all bets are open."

Some Democrats who had called for an independent vote on the price of drugs expressed Doubts before Thursday's vote, arguing that it was important to claim a bipartisan victory after the nationwide party campaign aimed at cutting the costs of pharmaceuticals.

"Maybe I'm naive … I like people to get along well," said Swing District First-Year Representative Jeff Van Drew (DN.J.), who stressed that he would always support the package. "It's nice to be able to go home and say we've passed legislation that has been signed and is now law. That's the goal. It is a little difficult to simply make bills to do them. "

Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), Chair of the House Health and Commerce Subcommittee, asked for the separation of the price of drugs and ACA bills alongside Representative Peter Welch, who led the bulk of the work. of the committee on the price of drugs. Representatives David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), Both lead proponents of the drug bills included in the package, were also among those who preferred a stand-alone vote.

"For now, that's good. I think we will live to fight another day, "said Schrader. "Our leaders still do not know how to play in the sandbox right now, everything is new to them. So, I'm going to give them some slack, they're doing a good job. "