Is government mandated price controls the answer to rising health care costs……………?
Senate Democrats introduce bill to allow government to block drug price rises
DECEMBER 13, 2018 / 11:19 AM / UPDATED 21 HOURS AGO
Reporting by Diane Bartz; editing by Jonathan Oatis
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Four Democratic U.S. senators introduced a bill on Thursday that would allow the government to block drug price increases that it decides are unjustified.
The bill sponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Jeff Merkley, all Democrats, would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit drug price increases that it deems excessive.
Both Republicans and Democrats have put the issue of fast-rising drug prices – some for drugs like insulin that have been on the market for decades – on their agenda.
Representative Nancy Pelosi, who leads Democrats in the House of Representatives, has pledged to pursue an agenda next year that includes tackling the issue of high and rising prescription drug prices.
U.S. President Donald Trump has blasted drugmakers and healthcare “middlemen” for making prescription medicines unaffordable for Americans.
Purchasers of GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s anti-seizure drug Lamictal have won class certification for an antitrust lawsuit claiming the drugmaker conspired with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd to delay the latter’s generic version.
U.S. District Judge William Walls in New Jersey on Wednesday rejected an argument by GSK and Teva that the claims by the purchasers did not have enough in common to proceed as a class action.
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