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Democrats May Be Wary of Pushing Forward Trump’s Revamped International Reference Pricing Rule

 
• By Sarah Karlin-Smith

Medicare actuaries indicate the ‘most-favored nations’ plan could limit patients’ access to medicine, though CMS’ Verma says she has confidence manufacturers won’t let that happen. Loss of access, combined with expected legal challenges, may make Democrats wary of embracing the Trump team’s last-minute rule, despite general agreement on the underlying policy idea. A Part D reference pricing policy is still in the works, CMS said.

Medicine cabinet
Medicare beneficiaries might lose access to drugs under a newly finalized Trump drug pricing rule • Source: Shutterstock

The Trump administration’s interim final rule to tie the reimbursement of some Medicare Part B drugs to the lower costs paid in other countries starting on 1 January 2021 would likely need to be embraced by President-elect Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress for it to come to fruition, but there were a few early signals Friday that might not occur.

While US Democratic leaders, including Biden, have generally embraced the idea of international reference pricing, initial feedback on the latest Trump proposal was not outright negative, but it was not positive either, and this came before the lawmakers likely had time to really digest the

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