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PartialHealth Care / Drug Prices

Lower medicine costs by letting the government negotiate the prices of all prescription drugs.

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PartialFact-checker reviewConfidence: 80%

The promise is to let the government negotiate the prices of ALL prescription drugs. Schiff voted for and helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act (2022), which for the first time authorized Medicare to negotiate drug prices — a partial, not full, realization of the goal. Per KFF (verified), the IRA lets Medicare negotiate only a small, phased-in number of drugs (10 Part D for 2026, +15 for 2027, +15 Part D and Part B for 2028, +20 for 2029 and later), selected from the 50 highest Part D and 50 highest Part B spend drugs and subject to many exclusions — NOT all prescription drugs. Schiff publicly claims credit ("Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, which we passed last Congress, prescription drugs will be more affordable"), and his own accomplishments page cites helping pass the IRA, which "lowered the cost of certain prescription drugs to $35 a month for seniors on Medicare." His stated aim to expand negotiation to ALL drugs (VA-style) remains unfulfilled; as a first-term senator in the minority (in office since Dec. 2024) he has enacted no such expansion. Not CHAMPIONED — he was a supporting vote (House Roll Call 420, 220-207), not lead author of the negotiation provisions (Wyden/Pallone/Neal/Pelosi drove them), so there is no leadership evidence for the negotiation authority itself. Because concrete, lasting partial delivery occurred (government now negotiates some drug prices) but the "all drugs" promise was not met, PARTIAL is correct rather than ATTEMPTED (no clean failure) or FULL/CHAMPIONED.

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