As federal attention begins to turn again to the cost of prescription drugs, the 117th Congress has introduced and reintroduced a number of bills aimed at drug pricing reform. The provisions included in the current slate of bills mirror those that appeared in the previous legislative session, and would seek to reduce drug prices by enacting changes along the following dimensions:
- drug price negotiation
- Medicare Part D redesign
- Medicare Part B and Part D inflation rebates
- international mechanisms
- generic drug promotion and anticompetitive behavior, and
- manufacturer reporting.
This constellation of proposals therefore represents the current potential of what a drug pricing reform package could include. (Please note that, though it has not been reintroduced, the chart also features the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act (S.2543) to provide an additional reference point for comparison regarding provisions on Medicare Part D redesign, inflation rebates, and manufacturer reporting.)