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First 100 Hours: House Votes to Require Medicare to Negotiate Drug Prices |
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Relief may be on the way for the millions of seniors who rely on the Medicare Part D prescription drug program. Keeping the First 100 Hours momentum going today, the House passed, on a 255-170 vote, a bill that will require Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices.
The bill (H.R. 4), introduced by Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), would repeal the Bush administration-backed provision of the 2003 prescription drug law that expressly forbids Medicare from negotiating lower prices for seniors.
Says Edward J. Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans:
Today’s vote…is the triumph of the public interest over the special interest. It is the first step toward making prescription drugs more affordable for our nation’s retirees.
In an AFL-CIO blog quick poll this week, 95 percent said Medicare should negotiate drug prices. Other recent polls show that over 90 percent of Americans want Medicare to have the power to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry.
But the Bush administration yesterday said the overwhelming majority of Americans was wrong and threatened to veto any bill that requires drug price negotiations.
Says Dingell:
Seniors, individuals with disabilities and the taxpayers of America were done a disservice when the Medicare prescription drug bill passed with a provision that prohibited the Secretary of Health and Human Services from negotiating with drug manufacturers for lower prescription drug prices.
The purchasing power of 40 million Medicare beneficiaries will allow the secretary to achieve lower prescription drug prices.
The pharmaceutical industry has joined the Bush White House in vigorously opposing lower prices through negotiations—and already has launched a massive lobbying and PR campaign aimed at the Senate, which will take up the bill soon. Drug industry lobbyists have buttonholed lawmakers, especially newly elected members, according to news reports.
This month alone, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhARMA) spent more than $1 million on full-page newspaper ads touting the success of the existing Medicare drug system, according to The Washington Post. Further:
Drug companies spent more on lobbying than any other industry between 1998 and 2005—$900 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. They donated a total of $89.9 million in the same period to federal candidates and party committees, nearly three-quarters of it to Republicans.
The money spent on the campaign against requiring Medicare to negotiate drug prices is a drop in the bucket compared with what Big Pharma could rake in under the status quo. According to The New York Times:
For big drug companies, the new Medicare prescription drug benefit is proving to be a financial windfall larger than even the most optimistic Wall Street analysts have predicted.
Last fall, a report from House Democrats showed drug manufacturers’ profits increased by more than $8 billion in the first six months after the Medicare drug plan went into effect.
In a letter to House members urging passage of the bill, William Samuel, AFL-CIO legislative director, wrote:
Negotiating Medicare drug prices makes sense and is perfectly consistent with program reimbursement for all other health care services, including hospital and physician services. Furthermore, the Department of Veteran Affairs and state Medicaid programs use their buying power to negotiate lower drug prices than those available to Medicare beneficiaries.
While profits soar, it’s the seniors who pay the price. Says Rangel:
Negotiating for lower prescription drug prices is a long-overdue step toward making health care more affordable for Medicare beneficiaries.
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