While Democrats spotlight health care as part of their party-wide focus on affordability ahead of the midterms, the legislative push to address drug prices and the costs of medical insurance and treatments remains at a standstill in Washington.
After Senate Democrats shut down the majority of the federal government for 43 days in the fall to demand an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, a group of moderates teamed up with select Republicans to negotiate a continuation of the tax credits paired with reforms. Those conversations came to a sudden halt in early February, and negotiators couldn’t even agree on why conversations ended.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, one of the key negotiators through the fall and winter, acknowledged that those conversations are over, but she told NOTUS that Democrats are weighing ways to bring the topic back up in Congress.