Like many seemingly intractable problems in American society, the problem of out-of-control drug prices is only “complex” and difficult to solve because the easy solutions are forestalled by our plutocrat-captured political system.
With the cost of food, fuel, and other consumer goods continuing to rise, Democrats have set their sights on prescription drugs.
On Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released information that Democrats’ landmark new drug pricing legislation could actually result in an initial increase in drug prices, contrary to what they have been claiming.
Axios reported:
The primary driver of the increases would be a cap preventing prices for existing drugs from rising more than inflation. That provision has received bipartisan support in the past.
This isn’t a surprise. It’s long been expected that the pharmaceutical industry will try to recoup the revenue lost through price caps or negotiations by raising the prices of other drugs.
Democrats’ party-line drug pricing legislation will likely cause manufacturers to raise the launch prices of new drugs, the Congressional Budget Office projected. https://t.co/rGmtBnkyJn
— Axios (@axios) August 5, 2022
More from The Daily Caller:
The possibility that pharmaceutical companies will counteract the inflation-linked price cap by simply raising starting prices will undercut some messaging in favor of the bill, which Democrats argue will rein in major corporations allegedly price-gouging Americans for necessary medicine.
The price cap provision of the bill has garnered bipartisan support in the past. The Medicare price negotiation is a far more contested aspect of the overall policy. Democrats are including the drug pricing reforms in the major reconciliation package slated to hit President Joe Biden’s desk in early August after it goes before the Senate on Saturday. The package also includes provisions aimed at addressing climate change and out-of-control inflation that has dogged the Biden administration and Democrats for months.
The bill had been stalled until Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin recently gave his endorsement to move forward.
Pelosi and her lieutenants seem principally focused on what they imagine would happen right after a bill is signed into law: a big spinning newspaper flying toward the camera with a headline blaring “DEMOCRATS CUT DRUG PRICES AND RETIREMENT SECURITY DEALS” and an extremely flattering accompanying photo of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer cutting the ribbon at a newly opened public/private partnership-run community center for veterans and orphans.
But with these empty legislative gestures, Democratic Party elders have shown that their fabled adherence to realism and pragmatism is itself deeply unserious.
Mind you, this was not a plan actually to lower the costs of drugs. No, it was a plan to pass a bill about high drug prices. They’ve only managed to carry off the sober pursuit of silly non-solutions to real problems.
Sources: DailyCaller, CBO, Axios