Senate Releases Bipartisan Proposal to Lower Seniors’ Drug Prices

The Senate Finance Committee released an ambitious bipartisan drug-pricing proposal Tuesday that would cap seniors’ out-of-pocket costs and limit price increases in Medicare, but the legislation faces stiff opposition from the pharmaceutical industry and conservative groups.

Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), spent the past six months hashing out the proposal, which would make changes to Medicare and Medicaid and is projected to save the government about $100 billion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The measure would also save seniors $27 billion in out-of-pocket costs over that period and $5 billion from slightly lower premiums, according to the CBO.