Congress could send its sweeping opioids’ package to President Trump by week’s end after lawmakers reached an agreement late Tuesday night on a final bill to address the nation’s public health crisis.
Several issues held up negotiations, but the biggest controversy had nothing to do with opioids at all.
News broke last week that the pharmaceutical industry was pushing for lawmakers to insert language into the popular opioids’ package that would ease how much it owed in covering some Medicare drug costs. But a concerted effort by patient-advocate groups successfully blocked the last-minute add that would have given drug companies a $4 billion windfall.
