Key Points

  • President Joe Biden said the federal Medicare program should negotiate prices for at least 50 prescription drugs each year, up from the current target of 20 medicines.
  • That proposal is one of several new health-care policy plans Biden will outline during his State of the Union address Thursday.
  • But the fate of his new proposals will be in the hands of a divided Congress, making it highly uncertain whether they will pass into law.
    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      This is great news. And for everyone asking for “100%”, that’s not how politics works. Politics is “the art of the possible” not a magic wand that can make anything happen.

    • FenrirIII@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      He wasn’t talking about percentages though.

      Edit: I agree that more should be regulated, but you need to start with the critical ones first. It’s easier to negotiate from that standpoint and build up.

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        Yea, but instead of fifty drugs we should negotiate on all if them.

        There is no reason other than corporate greed to not negotiate drug prices.

      • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Well, if you start with the 50 most used/highest line items on the budget… a lot of savings can be had.

    • Adalast@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Honestly, I am always wondering why there is a negotiation at all. If Wal-Mart can get the away with telling the likes of Sony, Nestle, and Kraft how much THEY will be paying for the stock for their shelves, the fucking government can do it with abandon. Fuck these asshats. Like, who are they going to complain to besides their hand puppets in Congress and on the supreme court? The government should not be required to participate in the free market, especially if so many fuckwidgets want to tell them that they are not allowed to regulate it.