Paul Krugman frequently complains about his philosophical opponents bringing up arguments that (he believes) have been refuted, but Paul Krugman and many Democrats do the same thing. In his op-ed today, he suggests, as a way to reduce the deficit, "Give Medicare the ability to bargain over drug prices." Democrats have been making this argument for years. Too bad the CBO said it wouldn't make any difference to the deficit.
Why do they keep bringing it up when it won't make any difference? Because they're not actually talking about negotiating prices. The CBO's report is specific to allowing Medicare to sit at the table with Prescription Drug Plans and Prescription Drug companies. Because Medicare has no leverage, it wouldn't be able to reduce the prices.
What the Democrats actually want is for Medicare to just say they're only going to pay X% of what the private plans pay, just like they do with the rest of Medicare. Yes, the immediate effect would be to lower costs, but it's not clear if private prices would rise to compensate.
The trick here is that Democrats are misidentifying their position as allowing Medicare to "negotiate" when really what they want is to set prices.
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