In 2021, members of Congress considered a proposal to let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical makers. One way to do so is to use prices from other federal agencies as a reference, according to a report from the Commonwealth Fund. The federal Medicare Part D (prescription drug program for seniors) pays nearly three times what Medicaid pays and nearly double what the federal departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs pay for the same medications, the report noted. Using domestic reference pricing, Medicare would pay what defense and the VA pay for drugs, STAT reported in September.
