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The Defense Department paid 41 percent; the VA paid 42 percent and Medicaid paid 52 percent.

Those figures indicate that substantial savings remain on the table.

For the 20 top-selling drugs, the lowest price offered by an insurer in the Medicare plan was 48 percent higher than the price negotiated by the VA.Opponents of drug negotiations also say that any savings produced through negotiations would result in higher drug prices for all other consumers.But that just raises another area that Congress needs to address.

Americans already pay, by far, the highest drug prices in the world because they subsidize the entire world.

That is, the United States is the only advanced nation that does not cap prescription drug prices.

The study, analyzing a market basket of 30 prescription drugs, found that Americans pay 52 percent more than British consumers, 67 percent more than Canadians, and 92 percent more than French ...

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