Permit the FDA to negotiate drug prices for Medicare recipients.

The price increase of drugs over the last several years is unconscionable. Concurrently, health insurance companies have increased the co-pay percentage upwards to 30%. For example, cancer drugs approved by the FDA in 2014 cost an average of $120,000 a year. What average family can afford $36,000? The FDA should be empowered to negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical industry. Should negotiations fail to achieve price reductions, regulations should be changed to permit the importation of prescription drugs from Canada to introduce price competition.