Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act

In January 2007, the 110th United States House of Representatives approved H.R. 4, the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act, a bill to require federal officials to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices for the 23 million senior citizens who have signed up for Medicare's prescription drug coverage. If passed, the law would repeal a ban on letting the government negotiate with manufacturers for lower prices — a provision that was part of the GOP-sponsored 2003 measure called the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, which created the prescription drug program.