From Menendez opposes fellow N.J. Democrat [Rep. Frank] Pallone’s plan to lower drug prices by Jonathan D. Salant for NJ.com and the 10/21/21 New Jersey Star-Ledger:
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez says he doesn’t like the way the House wants to lower prescription drug prices, and will not support its proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies in President Joe Biden’s proposed spending plan.
“My goal, which I have not seen in any proposal so far, is to ensure that the consumer at the counter gets relief and not just simply the government,” Menendez told NJ Advance Media.
“Otherwise, we will have done all of this, we will have taken billions from a industry that’s important to the nation, as we just saw with COVID, that’s important to New Jersey, but we still won’t have dealt with the cost of prescription drugs over the counter.”
Menendez seems to get it. Medicare is a monopsony. "Negotiations" between Medicare and private drug companies would be a sham. It's nothing more than price controls by another name. High drug prices have deep causes related to the FDA and other regulations, as well as the cost of cutting edge drug development. Simply forcing end prices down for the government would violate the rights of drug companies to set prices for their products and, as Menendez says, will cause great harm to this important industry, and to our health long term.
It remains to be seen how Menendez would meet his goal of lowering drug prices. He simply states “The cost of prescription drugs and lowering it is definitely something that should be proposed. It needs to be looked at in the context of what can pass and most importantly, what can guarantee that the consumer at the counter gets lower costs.”
But just the fact that Menendez is not a knee-jerk price cutter, and recognizes that the wrong policies can be bad for everyone, including the companies, their employees, and their customers, seems to ensure that whatever steps get taken will be at least less bad than Pallone’s scheme.
It’s not often that I get to praise a Democrat. Kudos to Menendez on this issue.
Related Reading:
The Star-Ledger’s Medicare/Prescription Drug Misinformation Campaign
Pharma Can’t ‘Bargain’ With a Medicare Monopsony
Huber on the Personalized Medicine Revolution—and the Government Roadblocks
How the FDA Violates Rights and Hinders Health—Stella Daily Zawistowski
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