The push to bring down prescription drug prices through government action will take a step forward Tuesday when a key lawmaker, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), issues a loose framework for legislation he hopes the chamber will pass this year.

The principles of reform , which Wydens office shared with HuffPost before publication, include several ideas that progressives have long championed among them, giving the federal government power to negotiate prices directly with drug manufacturers. The governments of other developed nations have this kind of authority, and its the main reason that the price of name-brand drugs overseas are so much lower than in the U.S.

Other key principles include creating an inducement for drug manufacturers to negotiate, rebates to mitigate year-to-year price hikes and, most important, an extension of the negotiated prices beyond Medicare recipients to private insurers and their beneficiaries.

That way even Americans who arent on Medicare would benefit through lower out-of-pocket prices at the pharmacy, lower insurance premiums or both.

Wydens intentions matter because the Finance Committees jurisdiction over Medicare makes it the likeliest venue for crafting Senate legislation.

And although Wyden has indicated support for most of these ideas in a variety of interviews and public appearances in the past few months, this new document formalizes his commitment to putting them in legislation.

It also reflects Wydens sense that passing a bill with these features is possible, following what he described Monday as a lot of sweat equity into finding a majority on drug pricing in the Senate.

I have had a lot of conversations with senators from both political parties, Wyden said in an interview with HuffPost, and Im putting down on paper where I believe we need to go, to get a consensus to pass a bill in both chambers.

Clarity About Intentions But Not About Details

That consensus still does not exist. And it takes only a quick glance at Wydens document to notice the lack of specifics.

The principles dont indicate, for example, exactly how Wyden thinks the federal government should go about negotiating drug prices. There are a variety of ways to do it, each one with its own pros and cons and each one with its own set of advocates and critics.

An example is international reference pricing , a model that would use the prices that foreign governments pay for drugs as one guide for setting U.S. prices.

The idea has the support of many progressives and is likely to be part of whatever prescription legislation emerges from the House, since international reference pricing was part of a prescription drug bill that passed that chamber back in 2019.

That proposal died when the Senate, then under Republican control, refused to consider it. The hope is that a new version of the House bill can get through the Senate this time, now that Democrats are in the majority.

But international reference pricing already has some strong critics among Senate Democrats, as Wyden confirmed in his interview.