House Dems ready to push Medicare negotiations

USA Today reports:

welve years after Congress rejected President Clinton's effort to redesign the nation's health care system, the debate about the government's role in the marketplace is being joined again this week.

House Democrats on Friday plan to pass legislation requiring the government to negotiate for lower Medicare prescription-drug prices. They see it as one way to reduce the impact of the program's coverage gap, which forces seniors and disabled Americans with high drug costs to pay their full cost for a period of months.

The Medicare prescription-drug law signed by President Bush in 2003 prohibited the government from interfering in negotiations over drug prices. Those negotiations are handled by scores of private insurance plans in each state.

An advertising and lobbying blitz by consumers, insurers and drug manufacturers isn't as extensive as it was in the early 1990s — at least not yet. But the debate over this issue could signify a series of political conflicts over health care policy reminiscent of the Clinton administration's first two years.

The central planners want a certain price.