White House Budget Pitches Capping Seniors' Out-of-Pocket Drug Costs

President Trump's proposed fiscal 2020 budget includes capping out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses for seniors covered by Medicare, reports Stat . A cap appears increasingly popular in the government, and its advocates include U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. The proposal would restrict spending on prescription drugs for seniors with Medicare coverage, delivering financial certitude to both beneficiaries and drugmakers. Meanwhile, the government would foot the bill for anything seniors spend on drugs beyond a certain threshold. The budget document does not indicate what that threshold would be, but suggests the policy change would cost the federal government $14 billion. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on the Senate Finance Committee has proposed capping annual drug costs at about $7,500 per Medicare beneficiary. Other Trump administration priorities cited in the proposal include an allowance for certain state Medicaid programs to develop their own more limited drug formularies and negotiate prices directly with drugmakers. The budget also outlines steps to empower the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to crack down on tactics drugmakers use to block generic competition.