Opinion | Democrats Vote to Raise Drug Prices

Democrats who passed the Schumer-Manchin bill on Sunday voted to raise drug costs and health premiums for 220 million privately insured Americans. That isn’t hyperbole. It’s the inevitable economic result of Medicare drug price controls after the Senate parliamentarian this weekend struck the bill’s inflation rebates.

Democrats know their Medicare take-it-or-leave-it drug “negotiations”—i.e., price controls—could have spill-over effects on the commercial market. This was one argument they made to the Senate parliamentarian for keeping the bill’s requirement that drug makers pay Medicare rebates if they raise prices in the commercial market higher than inflation.