To Lower Prescription Drug Costs, Give Medicare Authority to Bargain With Drug Companies

Late last month, reports the Center for Public Integrity, two advocacy groups, the Medicare Rights Center and Social Security Works, released a report suggesting that Congress could save taxpayers $141 billion over 10 years just by reauthorizing a program that was eliminated at the behest of drug makers in 2003. The groups noted that while the prescription drug benefit helped Medicare beneficiaries afford their medications, “the law also severely limited the government’s ability to control Medicare drug prices.”