Azar blasts proposal for Medicare to negotiate drug prices

Modern Healthcare: Allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with drugmakers to set prices could backfire and force the program to pay even higher prices for drugs, HHS Secretary Alex Azar told senators on Tuesday.

In a Senate Committee on Health, Education Labor & Pensions (HELP) hearing, Democratic lawmakers suggested drafting a bill allowing the HHS secretary to tell drugmakers it will pay the lowest of prices they are now offering to another country. For instance, if the UK is paying $30,000 for a drug and the U.S. is paying $150,000 for the same product, HHS could say it too would only pay the UK price.

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