WASHINGTON — There’s a cadre of health policy experts — two professors, a lobbyist, all former policy advisers to Democratic administrations — advising Nancy Pelosi on how best to lower prescription drug prices, a chief party priority.
The group, which includes the likes of Harvard professor Richard Frank, has been working closely with Wendell Primus, a Capitol Hill veteran and the senior adviser on budget and health policy issues to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Primus and the rest of his group are widely seen as taking a left-of-center but pragmatic approach to the policy issue, and are even working with the Trump administration in hopes of brokering a bipartisan deal.
The conciliatory approach has inflamed House progressives; intraparty spats have even spilled out into public view in recent weeks. The contact between Primus, his advisers, and White House adviser John O’Brien have left unclear exactly how the party intends to pursue consensus.
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