Biden to call on Congress to lower prescription drug costs
12 August 2021
President Biden on Thursday will call on Congress to reduce the prices of prescription drugs, the White House said.
State of play: Biden will ask Congress to create reforms that will prevent drug companies from raising their prices "faster than inflation." He will also ask Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, which it is currently prohibited from doing by law, the White House said.
- The Biden administration will work with local government "to import safe, lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and accelerating the development and uptake of generic and biosimilar drugs that give patients the same exact clinical benefit but at a fraction of the price," according to a White House fact sheet.
- On average, Medicare beneficiaries could save approximately $200 is drug costs are lowered, the administration said.
What he's saying: "While the pharmaceutical companies have done enormous work by developing life-saving COVID-19 vaccines alongside the United States’ best scientists, crippling drug prices are unacceptable," Biden is expected to say in a speech Thursday, per Reuters.
The big picture: Biden's expected call follows an executive order that mandates the Department of Health and Human services to create a "comprehensive plan ... to combat high prescription drug prices and price gouging" by Aug. 23.
Between the lines: Prescription drug costs have remained a persistent issue on Capitol Hill.
- Last month, Democratic lawmakers released the framework for their $3.5 trillion spending package, which could reduce what patients pay for prescription drugs while expanding Medicare coverage.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.