Should Medicare be allowed to negotiate drug prices? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Billions of dollars could be saved by Medicare if they simply negotiated drug prices for the ten most common prescription medicines in the same way Costco does, a recent study found. Caleb Alexander, an internal medicine expert at Johns Hopkins, says gathering the necessary political steam to do so is lacking.

Alexander: There have been many that have advocated for years to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. And there just hasn’t been the political will to get it done. I wouldn’t hold your breath on that one. Clearly Medicare is a major purchaser of prescription drugs in the country, and would have enormous leverage and enormous ability to negotiate down prices. I think that as a country we’re missing important opportunities to effectively and impactfully reduce prescription drug expenditures.  :30

Alexander urges people to be aware of this issue as programs such as Medicare come under scrutiny for cost cutting. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.