Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) announced Tuesday they made a deal on a bill to lower drug prices and increase transparency in the pharmaceutical industry.

The two senators, who serve as the chairman and ranking member on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, said the pieces of legislation will "expand the availability of low-cost generic drugs."

Cost relief may be coming for Medicare recipients who use insulin. But a proposed $35 monthly cap for those with private insurance is no longer part of the Senate’s Inflation Relief Act, which goes before the House on Friday.

The cost of insulin, which is used by people with diabetes to control their blood sugar, has become a political issue, with politicians like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders decrying how much Americans pay compared to people in other countries.

High drug and health care costs continue to prevent millions of Americans from achieving full health. Nearly 1 in 2 American adults report difficulty affording health care costs. It’s no wonder that voters consistently rank bringing down prescription drug prices and other measures to reduce the cost of care as among Congress’ top priorities.

Medicare is poised to renegotiate the prices of some of its most expensive drugs through a historic expansion of its power, which could reduce costs for many seniors as well as federal spending on its prescription drug plan.

The changes are tucked inside a massive spending-and-tax bill in Congress that includes $433 billion in investments in health-care and clean energy. House Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act on Friday in a 220 to 207 vote along party lines, ending a tortured legislative process that took more than a year.

Progressives within and beyond Congress took aim at Sen. Joe Manchin on Tuesday after the West Virginia Democrat infamous for blocking his own party's priorities took to Twitter to call for lowering prescription drug prices.

Sharing a photo with older residents of his state, Manchin said that "by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, capping the cost of insulin at $35 per month, and allowing the importation of drugs from Canada, we can lower prescription drug prices in America. We must take action and keep the promises we've made to our seniors."

Congress’s ambitious plans to expand health coverage are crashing up against one of the great questions in health policy: Can they force the pharmaceutical industry to hold down prescription drug prices without sacrificing the medical innovation that could lead to new treatments and cures in the future?

New rules from the Trump administration on Friday would require insurers and hospitals to disclose upfront the actual prices for common tests and procedures to promote competition and push down costs.

The sweeping changes face stiff pushback from the health care industry and could be challenged in court. Even in an ideal world where information flows freely, patients and their families would have to deal with a learning curve to become comfortable with the intricacies of health care billing.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not bring her sweeping drug pricing bill to the floor for a vote this month as previously expected, according to a Senior Democratic aide.

Pelosi’s office is awaiting the final review from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which measures the bill’s impact on federal spending. That is now expected to take two more weeks, according to the aide.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released proposed legislation on Thursday that would allow the federal government to negotiate the prices of hundreds of prescription drugs for Medicare healthcare beneficiaries as well as other consumers.

Americans pay the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world, as most other developed nations have single-payer systems with the government negotiating prices for its people.

Two whistleblowers at a pharmaceutical company responsible for one of the largest drug price increases in US history said the company bribed doctors and their staffs to increase sales, according to newly unsealed documents in federal court.

The effort, the whistleblowers said in a lawsuit against the company, was part of an intentional "multi-tiered strategy" by Questcor Pharmaceuticals, now Mallinckrodt, to boost sales of H.P. Acthar Gel, cheating the government out of millions of dollars.