Repeal the Medicare drug price negotiation program
What the document says“This “negotiation” program should be repealed”
The program, created by the Inflation Reduction Act, lets Medicare set prices for selected drugs. The chapter puts the word negotiation in quotation marks, and says that if the act is not repealed an Administration required to implement it must do so prudently, minimizing the harmful effects of the law's policies.
What the document actually says“This “negotiation” program should be repealed”
This program should be repealed. The book puts the word negotiation in quote marks.
Medicare can now bargain over some drug prices. The book says that is not real bargaining. It wants the program ended.
Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First
2025-04-15 · 90 FR 16441
EO 14273 keeps the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program and directs the Secretary to propose guidance for initial price applicability year 2028 that improves transparency, prioritizes drugs with high costs to Medicare, and minimizes negative effects of the maximum fair price on innovation, and to work with Congress to align small molecule drugs with biologics. That matches the chapter's fallback, implementing the program prudently and minimizing its harmful effects. It is not the first ask: the program stands, and only Congress can repeal it.
The order keeps the drug price program in place. It tells the agency to run it with more care and openness. That was the chapter's second choice. Its first choice was to end the program, and only Congress can do that.