When he issued the orders President Trump gave the drug industry until Aug. 24 to find a suitable alternative to one of his drug pricing plans. He also announced that he would be meeting with drug company executives last Tuesday to begin discussions about a different plan. .The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the rule would be mandatory and will focus on 50 single source drugs and biologic drugs that comprise the largest majority of Medicare Part B drug spending. .As a result of the agreement, Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) switches places with Senator Mitch McConnell (R- Ky.). Schumer now becomes the Senate Majority Leader and McConnell becomes the Senate Minority Leader. .We could, alternatively, allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices — a proposal that has been raised by politicians and beaten back by industry again and again. We would then need to restrict markup for a COVID-19 vaccine for the private market. Otherwise, we would get the kinds of results emerging from the COVID testing industry, where Medicare pays 0 for the test but some labs charge insurers over ,000. .After raiding the current system, the health care law then takes the one aspect of Medicare that everyone agrees is broken and uses it as a model for the future. The health care law establishes the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) as a tool that is supposed to hold down costs; it is modeled after the failed formula that sets the underfunded Medicare physician reimbursement rates. President Obama recently doubled down on this controversial rationing board, and it seems to be the Democrats' only proposal. .However, there might be other ways to augment finances, particularly through an additional tax exemption and the Child Tax Credit. The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 expands the Child Tax Credit for tax year 2021 in the following ways: .Over five million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer's disease, and each year thousands more are diagnosed with this painful, heart-rending illness. Most of us know someone—a family member, coworker or friend—suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia. With the number of Alzheimer's patients expected to skyrocket in the coming decades, we must continue to press forward, offering support for family members and caregivers, while developing better and more effective treatment options as we work toward a cure for this terrible disease. .If the bill is going to reach the President's desk for his signature the House will have to agree to the changes the Senate made and pass it one more time. It may take a couple of weeks if that is to happen, however, because the House will not be back in session until the week of April 12. .With only six weeks to go before the December 13th deadline, it remains to be seen which path the budget conference will take. Leaders of the conference announced on Wednesday that the next public meeting will be held on November 13th, but most of the work will likely occur behind closed doors in the coming weeks. Regardless, TSCL will continue to monitor the evolving budget negotiations, and we will post updates here in the Legislative News section of our website.