GOP senators distance themselves from Grassley, Trumps efforts to cut drug prices

The fight between policymakers intent on lowering prescription drug prices and the drugmakers who keep raising them intensified Thursday as a slew of Republican senators threatened to side with manufacturers against legislation supported by their own committee chairman and president. After months of closed-door meetings and high-profile hearings, the Senate Finance Committee voted 19-9 to advance legislation introduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, to rein in drug costs in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. But even some Republicans who supported it warned they may not back the sweeping package of proposals in a full Senate vote. They object in particular to a provision that would cap drug prices paid by Medicare based on the rate of inflation. Other obstacles have piled up. Wyden announced that Democrats, who provided most of the bill’s support in committee, would not allow a Senate vote without the Republicans agreeing to hold votes on cementing insurance protections for people with preexisting conditions. Democrats have complained for months that GOP efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will leave people with these medical problems without any recourse to get affordable healthcare. Democrats also want to empower federal health officials to negotiate drug prices.