As Major Drug Price Reforms Stall, Focus Shifts to Insulin Costs

The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on March 16 in which politicians and experts discussed drug price inflation and the proposal for Medicare to negotiate prices for some high-cost medications. But the efforts in those areas still seem uncertain and most are unlikely to move forward anytime soon as they were part of the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) bill that stalled out in December, one health policy expert tells AIS Health.

Health insurers and PBMs, though generally supportive of lowering drug prices, have in the past been critical of some of legislators’ reform proposals — including a narrower focus on lowering insulin out-of-pocket costs that has emerged in recent months.