Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats will push ahead on restraining pharmaceutical prices and extending health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., joined at right by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., meets with reporters following a closed-door caucus lunch, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. WASHINGTON — — Democrats will push ahead on restraining pharmaceutical prices and extending health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer affirmed Tuesday, backingand effectively concede to a pivotal senator.
But that glossed over an accompanying reality — Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has again forced his party to narrow the measure's sweep, this timeSuch initiatives are a passionate goal for younger and progressive voters, who are showing signs of souring on Democrats for their inability to pass strong legislation curbing carbon emissions that warm the planet.
Manchin upended a roughly $2 trillion, 10-year social and environment bill in December after the House approved it. He did not attend a weekly lunch Tuesday that Democratic senators hold. It remains unclear exactly what the final measure will look like or when it will be ready for votes. As of now, the package would save $288 billion over the coming decade, largely because its price controls would make government drug purchases cheaper. Some money would pay for health insurance subsidies for consumers, with the rest used to slightly reduce federal deficits.
One item that might be vulnerable would require drug makers to pay the government rebates if they raise prices beyond inflation increases. If the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, says those provisions should be removed, that could reduce the measure's savings by as much as $100 billion, a big blow.
Republicans are opposing Democrats' measure. They say it would discourage pharmaceutical research and object to shoring up federal health insurance subsidies created in former President Barack Obama's 2010 health care overhaul.
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