House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is plowing ahead with her bill to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices despite a breakdown in relations with her chief bargaining partner on the issue — President Donald Trump. But the budget office also cautioned that squeezing drugmakers could mean that some new medications — 3% to 5% — won't make it to market. But at another hearing before Ways and Means, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, caustically dubbed the Pelosi bill the "Fewer Cures for Patients Act." Brady said the budget office finding that one consequence could be fewer drug approvals should be a stop sign for lawmakers. Congressional Republicans are broadly opposed to allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, so the legislation has no chance in the Senate unless Trump gets behind it.

Source: ABC News October 17, 2019 20:01 UTC