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Federal policymakers are likely to work together to lower prescription drug prices, though they disagree on how to increase healthcare coverage, according to a group of healthcare policy experts who spoke at the 2019 Health Care Forecast Conference hosted by the UCI Paul Merage School of Business.

Leading experts on both sides of the aisle shared optimistic predictions about the likelihood of healthcare reform amidst a divided congress and an age of political disruption at the Federal Health Legislative Outlook presentation this year.

Hosted by the Center for Health Care Management & Policy at the Merage School, the annual conference, now in its 28th year, explores key political and social issues that impact healthcare policy.

“I’m fairly optimistic that Democrats and Republicans can get together and take some significant action in 2019 to lower prescription drug costs –– that’s my main prediction,” said Wendell Primus, senior health and policy advisor to the Office of the Speaker of the House.

Between 2008 and 2015, prices for the most commonly used, brand-name drugs increased 164 percent. Insulin prices doubled between 2012 and 2016, and nearly tripled over the last decade.

Both Primus and Joseph Antos, the Wilson H. Taylor scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, anticipate a bipartisan effort to lower prescription drug prices across the board, in addition to making changes to Medicare Part D, which helps lower the cost of  prescription drugs for patients.

Universal health coverage is hotly debated topic, and Democrats are split on whether a Medicare for All policy or a bolstered Affordable Care Act will best offer quality coverage to the most people. Because of this divide, Primus noted, universal coverage will only move forward at the state level this year.

“The speaker is firmly committed to building on the ACA because that is the least expensive way to provide coverage for all,” added Primus, who works in close collaboration with Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Individual states, however, have the ability to restore the individual mandate (which imposes taxes on the uninsured), use risk deterrents and cover patients within the 400 to 600 percent of poverty. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has included these items on his agenda for healthcare reform.

Meanwhile, the panelists agreed that a Medicare for All single-payer system, would amplify the problems experienced under the ACA, such as the large-scale redistribution of wealth from the north to the south, as well as the suburbs to intercities –– which they said didn’t work.

“The lesson in the last few elections,” said Dean Rosen, partner at lobbying firm Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, “is that massive change is not a political winner. But working to improve the system in pragmatic ways ... can help make a change.”

Kristi Martin, senior vice president at Waxman Strategies was scheduled to speak, but unable to attend due to flight restrictions in Washington D.C.

In a separate presentation, Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, contextualized this discussion on healthcare reform by mapping out the country’s larger political landscape.