A bipartisan pair of senators introduced legislation to lower prescription drug prices by prohibiting pharmaceutical companies from selling drugs in the U.S. at higher prices than the international average.
The bill from Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) is a riff on the “most favored nation” policy President Trump pushed in his first term, which tried to tie domestic prices for certain prescription drugs in Medicare to the lowest level paid by comparable countries.
Drug companies sued shortly after the effort was launched as an interim final rule, and it was blocked in federal court.
The White House is seeking to revive the policy as part of the broader GOP discussions on paying for his domestic policy legislation, though the newest version would only apply to Medicaid and not Medicare, the White House confirmed to The Hill.
It’s not clear how much savings could be gained, as federal law already requires Medicaid to pay the “best price,” a steep discount from the lowest price available on the private market.
The push by the White House is a curveball for Republicans already at odds over Medicaid cuts and could risk further complicating the talks about how to slash hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for the bill.
“President Trump previously advanced major reforms to ensure that American patients pay the same prices as consumers abroad,” Hawley said in a statement.
“This bipartisan legislation would continue that work to end a drug market that favors Big Pharma, make prescriptions affordable again, and empower Americans to get the care they need.”
Hawley is also one of several GOP senators who have expressed opposition to proposals in the House that would cut billions of dollars from Medicaid, and is a key lawmaker to watch if the sweeping party-line legislation ever makes it to the upper chamber.
The Hawley-Welch legislation would impose civil monetary penalties on pharmaceutical companies that violate the rule, calculated and charged for each unit sold at an inflated price.
“In his first term, President Trump pursued a most-favored nation policy to level the playing field for American patients,” Welch said. “I’m glad to partner with Senator Hawley on this bipartisan bill that offers the administration a template to work with Congress to make that goal a reality.”
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