Biden gets a healthcare legislative win.
After two decades, Democrats are finally on track to break the firewall between the pharmaceutical industry and the Medicare program. Soon, the U.S. government will be able to use the full brunt of its leverage to negotiate discounts from drugmakers, like the governments in many other high-income countries.
Biden owes the win to dogged dedication by both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who each in separate instances resurrected drug pricing reform in the package from what appeared to be certain death. Schumer’s ultimate win came Sunday, when the Senate squeezed through a sweeping package that includes climate and tax reforms in addition to the historic win on letting Medicare negotiate drugs. The House is expected to pass it after the House returns to Washington on Friday, after which Biden can sign it into law.
When you really think about it, even though the package’s provision is not at wide-ranging as POTUS originally envisioned, the Democrats’ compromise of health care, climate change and deficit-reduction strategies is still a massive undertaking.
