[scrubs]

The Supreme court is/will be bounded by the fact the inflation reduction act is law. This isn't like abortion where there is no federal law passed by congress and signed by the president.

I'm very happy to see this. And surely pricing transparency is good: we're gonna see just how this works.

Further I'm glad the US government is challenging corporate America. Corporations implicitly threaten the US public saying if minimum wage goes up they'll be forced to cut jobs. They implicitly threaten a leaner pipeline of drug advances if prices are negioated down.

Let's see how this cookie crumbles.

The US congress is explicitly tasked with the federal checkbook. Negotiating prices down is clearly in their purview and is consistent with agency they've always had. Has congress ever negotiated a price with defense, office supply chains? Has the congress solicited competitive bids on work? Then why not meds?

[jfengel]

The Supreme Court has the authority to strike down any law it finds unconstitutional. It may have to work slightly harder, but I have no doubt that they can find grounds on which the Inflation Reduction Act is unconstitutional.

In fact, googling those last five words turns up an industry lawsuit alleging precisely that:

https://phrma.org/resource-center/Topics/Access-to-Medicines...

I am certain that some members of the Court will agree, and others will not. It will come down to a count of votes. And I strongly doubt that I will agree with the reasoning that justifies those votes, either way.