By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Monday it would seek authority to negotiate pricing for high-cost drugs under the federal government's Medicare Part D program, which offers private insurance drug coverage for senior citizens and the disabled. President Barack Obama's new $3.99 trillion budget for fiscal-year 2016 proposes allowing the U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services to negotiate prices for biotechnology treatments and other high-cost drugs in Part D "to ensure access to and affordability of these treatments." The move to add negotiating authority on drug prices is likely to draw fierce resistance in the Republican-controlled Congress. Lawmakers prohibited Medicare from negotiating prices directly with drug companies when it created the voluntary Part D program under former President George W. Bush in 2003.
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