Biden rekindles push for Medicare to negotiate drug prices, an initiative that has faced hurdles in Congress.

• The president proposed that Medicare be allowed to negotiate drug prices and that the monthly cost of insulin be limited to $35.
• The Build Back Better Act, which included both of those proposals, ended up falling apart in the Senate in November.

Apparently, President Biden hasn't abandoned the plan to lower prescription drug costs, particularly for seniors.

In his State of the Union address, Biden proposed capping insulin prices at $35 a month for all Americans and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, which is currently prohibited.

In his speech to congressional lawmakers, Biden proposed that Medicare negotiate the price of prescription drugs to resolve our disagreements on this floor.

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The Build Back Better Act, which aimed to strengthen the social safety net and combat climate change, included both the insulin price cap and Medicare negotiation provisions.

The Senate bill that aimed to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers fell apart in late 2020, despite passing the House in November. The bill would have begun price negotiations with up to 10 drugs in 2025, gradually increasing to 20 drugs by 2028.

Medicare's drug benefit (Part D) will have a cap on out-of-pocket spending for beneficiaries, starting at $2,000 annually in 2024, with yearly adjustments.

For many of Medicare's 63.3 million beneficiaries, who are mostly elderly, limiting out-of-pocket drug spending could mean saving thousands of dollars annually because there is currently no cap.

In 2019, research from the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that approximately 1.2 million enrollees spent over $2,000 on drugs delivered through Part D.

Whether lawmakers will revive efforts to pass Biden's domestic agenda and whether lowering drug prices will be included is uncertain.