Administration, Lawmakers And Candidates Seeking Ways To Control Drug Prices
Consumers' concern about medications that can cost $100,000 a year or more is spurring politicians of all stripes and federal officials to search for remedies. Also in political news, calls by Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, both seeking the Republican presidential nomination, for the Senate to move to the right of the House on a repeal measure is causing waves, and Dr. Ben Carson's health politics come under scrutiny.
The Wall Street Journal:
Lawmakers, Candidates Target High Drug Prices
Lawmakers and the Obama administration are ratcheting up efforts to target pharmaceutical companies over high-priced drugs, a sign that legislators are trying to bridge partisan differences to tackle a key driver of rising health care costs. Some specialty drugs can now run $100,000 or more a year, and the issue has been amplified by several high-profile cases in which makers boosted prices dramatically and rapidly. (Armour, 11/15)
The Associated Press:
Presidential Politics Complicates Life In The Senate
In the presidential campaign, Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are rising in the polls. Back in the Senate, their ambitions can sometimes cause a nuisance for fellow lawmakers, including vulnerable Republicans up for re-election next year. The latest example: Rubio and Cruz are pushing for the Senate to go farther than the House when it takes up legislation to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law. They want to make good on promises to repeal "Obamacare" in its entirety, rather than a more targeted repeal approved recently by the House. (Werner, 11/14)
The Associated Press:
Carson Sometimes Deviates From GOP Health Care Thought
Ben Carson lambastes “Obamacare” as much as the next Republican presidential candidate, but the neurosurgeon-turned-politician has a history of health care ideas that puts him outside mainstream conservative thought on the issue. Private insurance companies, he has said, should be little more than “non-profit service organizations,” with government capping their profit margins. Meanwhile, the federal government could offer catastrophic care coverage akin to the National Flood Insurance Program, paid for with taxes on insurers’ profits. (Barrow, 11/16)
