The impact of so much drug company money coursing through Congress is not always visible to the average American, even if it can have an impact on their pockets and lives. In 2003 Congress passed a law largely written by the pharmaceutical industry preventing the federal administration from doing what almost every other government in the developed world does—negotiate prices for drugs paid for with public money. The legislation also threw up barriers to cheaper imports. The result is that federally run programs such as Medicare and Medicaid must pay whatever the drug makers demand.
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