In State of the Union address, Biden to urge Congress to pass measures to lower health care costs

President Biden plans to urge Congress to focus on cost-saving ideas for prescription drugs in his State of the Union address Thursday night, including capping out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for all Americans and allowing the federal government to negotiate the prices of widely used medications.These two proposals expand on actions taken in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which allowed Medicare for the first time to negotiate the price of 20 expensive drugs used by many Americans with diabetes, arthritis and heart disease. The federal government is negotiating this week with…