{"id":794999,"date":"2021-09-20T14:28:32","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T18:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=794999"},"modified":"2021-09-20T14:28:36","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T18:28:36","slug":"internal-defections-over-democrats-plan-to-lower-drug-prices-puts-long-sought-goal-in-major-peril","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/internal-defections-over-democrats-plan-to-lower-drug-prices-puts-long-sought-goal-in-major-peril\/","title":{"rendered":"Internal Defections Over Democrats\u2019 Plan To Lower Drug Prices Puts Long-Sought Goal In Major Peril"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Finternal-defections-over-democrats-plan-to-lower-drug-prices-puts-long-sought-goal-in-major-peril%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=794999&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is reportedly opposed to her party\u2019s proposed drug pricing reforms, joining multiple House Democrats who have already objected to it and creating another obstacle to the long-sought priority becoming law.<\/p>\n<p>The reforms center around allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, potentially saving the program billions of dollars which could be used to expand <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/21\/schumer-medicare-expansions-bidens-infrastructure-families-plans\/\">dental, vision and hearing coverage<\/a>. Sinema told the White House that she opposes both the House and Senate proposals,&nbsp;and she will not support a compromise plan pitched by House moderates that allows only certain drugs to be negotiated, Politico <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/09\/19\/kyrsten-sinema-biden-drug-pricing-prescription-plan-512907\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs she committed, Kyrsten is working directly in good faith with her colleagues and President Biden on the proposed budget reconciliation package,\u201d John LaBombard, a Sinema spokesperson, told Politico. \u201cGiven the size and scope of the proposal, while those discussions are ongoing we are not offering detailed comment on any one proposed piece of the package.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sinema is not the only Democrat on record opposing the reforms. In the House, Reps. Kurt Schrader, Kathleen Rice and Scott Peters voted against the provision, <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/09\/15\/drug-prices-house-energy-commerce-committee-nancy-pelosi-joe-biden-pharmaceutical-industry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">preventing it from advancing<\/a>&nbsp;beyond the Energy and Commerce Committee. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/09\/01\/lower-drug-costs-democrats-battle-big-pharma-fellow-members-chuck-schumer-medicare\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: In Bid To Lower Drug Costs, Dems Prepare To Battle Big Pharma \u2014 And Some Of Their Own)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7250168\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"32\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7250168\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in July during bipartisan infrastructure negotiations. (Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sinema took over $135,000 from pharmaceutical PACs during the 2020 election cycle, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/members-of-congress\/kyrsten-sinema\/pacs?cid=N00033983&amp;cycle=2020&amp;seclong=Health&amp;sector=H\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according<\/a> to&nbsp;Open Secrets, and she has already said that she will&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/08\/23\/kyrsten-sinema-doubles-down-against-democrats-3-5-trillion-budget\/\">oppose<\/a>&nbsp;the budget as it\u2019s currently written, saying that its $3.5 trillion cost is too large to add to the current national debt.<\/p>\n<p>Other Democrats are also been skeptical about the reforms. \u201cI\u2019m not ready to make any decisions on the budget resolution,\u201d New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollcall.com\/2021\/07\/15\/menendez-drug-pricing-concerns-highlight-budget-obstacles-for-democrats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told<\/a>&nbsp;Roll Call&nbsp;in July. \u201cThe only industry that gets directly, I\u2019ll call taxed, mostly is the pharmaceutical industry. You have to show me that you\u2019re reducing the cost of prescription drugs to the consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also voted against&nbsp;allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Advocacy groups have also&nbsp;run <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tpOzm6haT_w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ads<\/a>&nbsp;targeting Delaware Sen.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=j&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.delawareonline.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2F2017%2F01%2F13%2Fcarper-coons-among-dems-slammed-vote-drug-companies%2F96557658%2F&amp;uct=1628811701&amp;usg=H-oQ4FWi5oOCx-Or3zrhHXCbFaY.&amp;source=chat\">Tom Carper<\/a>&nbsp;and West Virginia Sen.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2018\/10\/19\/midterms-pharma-drug-prices\/\">Joe Manchin<\/a>, both of whom have sided with the pharmaceutical industry in the past, pressuring them to support the provision.<\/p>\n<p>The existing Democratic opposition could be more than enough to tank the provisions allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices despite having the support of the vast majority of Democrats in Congress, President Joe Biden and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/health-costs\/poll-finding\/public-opinion-on-prescription-drugs-and-their-prices\/\">overwhelming majority<\/a> of Americans.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is reportedly opposed to her party\u2019s proposed drug pricing reforms, joining multiple House Democrats who have already objected to it and creating another obstacle to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-794999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}