(UnitedVoice.com) – One of the proposals Democratic lawmakers had hoped to include in President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan was an enhancement to Medicare and Medicaid benefits. The proposals were ultimately cut. Days before it fell apart, on October 26, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) criticized his colleagues and the pharmaceutical industry.
During a Twitch stream, Sanders told viewers that the issue of the moment was whether Congress had the courage to stand up to special interests in order to help the American people. He claimed most citizens want lawmakers to pass legislation that allows the federal government to negotiate lower prices for name-brand prescription drugs covered by insurance. In reality, many people are concerned with the government deciding what drugs they will be allowed to take.
Sanders argued there’s “no rational reason other than greed” for Big Pharma to charge people more for name-brand drugs when they’re the same as lower-cost generic drugs. Apparently he forgot about the cost of research and development of new drugs.
Bernie Sanders questions "courage" of Congress as spending bill is whittled down https://t.co/PybZsvyGie
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) October 27, 2021
Former President Donald Trump also wanted to lower drug prices for the American people. In fact, he passed a number of executive orders to do exactly that while he was in office. Specifically, he wanted the federal government to have the ability to negotiate lower drug prices based on what other countries were paying. Biden rescinded the orders when he took office.
Now, Sanders is trying to codify legislation to lower prices like Trump wanted to do, but Biden agreed to cut the proposal from the spending bill. So who’s lacking courage now?
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