Kerry Health Plan Would Force Drugmakers to Accept Lower Prices
Bloomberg reports:
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s plan to make health care a right and “not a privilege” would give the U.S. government the leverage to force drug companies to cut some prices in half.
President George W. Bush, 58, opposes direct negotiation of prices with the $466 billion pharmaceutical industry. Most of the federal health-care system is already prohibited from such negotiations, in contrast to Canada and Europe, where governments have broad authority to influence prices.
Kerry, 60, wants a negotiation policy that would mirror the Veterans Affairs Department, which gets discounts of as much as 65 percent off average wholesale prices of drugs by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., GlaxoSmithKline Plc and AstraZeneca Plc
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