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Biden would seek to strengthen and cement the Affordable Care Act, expanding access to health insurance to even more Americans and helping them afford their medications. He has said he plans to address the high prices Americans pay for prescription drugs with proposals that include allowing the government’s Medicare program to negotiate costs, letting patients import drugs from abroad and linking price hikes to inflation. (Miller and Grenier, 11/7)

We will have a Biden administration more inclined to promote and expand the insurance exchanges and Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act as well as controlling prescription drug prices through regulation. But as for Congressional action, it is much more likely we will be facing gridlock––even if Democrats eke out a tiny Senate majority. (Robert Laszewski, 11/7)

Pharmaceutical companies are bracing for renewed efforts by Mr. Biden to lower the costs of prescription drugs, including giving the federal government more say in what it pays for the medicines, according to analysts and economists, which could hurt industry sales. Yet large pharmaceutical companies don’t anticipate Democratic policy proposals to pose greater threats to their profit models than those of Mr. Trump, who moved to increase the importing of drugs from abroad and peg prices Medicare pays for unspecified drugs to the rates other countries pay. (11/8)

Americans could further cut down on their out-of-pocket costs because a Biden administration says it will lower the price of prescriptions by negotiating drug prices. However, "most of Biden’s health care plan would require legislation, so passing any of it would require Democrats to control the Senate as well as the House,'' Oxford Economics says. "In the absence of legislation, we expect Biden to reverse Trump’s executive actions that have curtailed the ACA." (Jones, 11/9)

Biden, like Trump, has attacked the high cost of prescription drugs. During the campaign, he proposed allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, regulating the launch prices of drugs without competition, limiting drug-price increases to the rate of inflation, and allowing personal drug importation. How high those actions sit on Biden's agenda remain to be seen, especially as COVID-19 and an economic recovery stay center stage. It's even hazier whether Biden would carry out Trump's transparency agenda. (Brady and Cohrs, 11/6)