Hatch Warns Colleagues Against White House Drug Pricing Plan

Retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) urged his Republican colleagues not to support the White House drug pricing plan, claiming it oversteps HHS authority.

The administration’s International Pricing Index model has been a frequent target of criticism for conservatives, who claim it would stifle competition by making American drugmakers subject to foreign price controls. Hatch’s letter echoes these concerns, writing that the plan would not address the problem of “the U.S. subsidizing the rest of the world” and would hurt research and development.

HHS officials pushed back against such criticisms earlier this month, with Senior Adviser to the HHS Secretary for Drug Pricing Reform John O’Brien writing that the government already sets prices in Part B and that “those who have philosophical concerns about government price-fixing should be among the most vocal opponents of the status quo.”