Some more great news from one of our favorite Senators:
http://www.thelundreport.org/...
Oregon could save anywhere from $325 to $766 million if Medicare were able to negotiate prescription drug prices similar to governments of other wealthy countries. That's according to a March report released by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which was the subject of a press conference hosted by Ron Williams, executive director of Oregon Action, and Dean Baker, co-executive director of the Center and coauthor of the report.
Williams said Oregon Action would be “moving forward with strategic political conversations” to try and lift the prohibition that prevents Medicare from negotiating drug prices. He said the group intends to meet with Sen. Jeff Merkley to try and persuade him to cosponsor Sen. Jay Rockefeller's (D-W. Va.) Medicare Drug Savings Act, which died in committee in 2011 but which he intends to reintroduce this year. The bill would overturn a law, introduced during the second Bush administration, that prohibited Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices.
Following the conference, Merkley's office confirmed that he intends to cosponsor the bill. “Senator Merkley has long believed that we should be able to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs under Medicare,” said Courtney Warner Crowell, Merkley's deputy communications director. “This would lead to significant cost savings for Medicare and help our seniors who end up paying much higher prices for prescription drugs than seniors in other countries. This is a common-sense solution that we should have implemented years ago.” - The Lund Report, 4/9/13
Senator Jay Rockefeller (D. WV) introduced the act back in June of 2011:
http://www.rockefeller.senate.gov/...
The Medicare Drug Savings Act of 2011 would reduce the deficit, saving taxpayers $112 billion over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Similar proposals were also included in the recommendations from the President’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and the President’s framework for deficit reduction.
The legislation would require prescription drug manufacturers to provide a rebate for drugs provided to people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, as well as all other enrollees in the low-income-subsidy plan in the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program. Manufacturers currently provide rebates for other Medicaid beneficiaries and had previously provided rebates for dually eligible beneficiaries.
Prior to the creation of the Medicare prescription drug program, brand-name drug manufacturers paid a drug rebate for dually eligible beneficiaries in Medicare and Medicaid. However, when the new Medicare drug program was established, drug companies no longer had to provide these rebates, resulting in windfall profits for prescription drug manufacturers, at taxpayers’ expense.
Cosponsors of this bill include Senators Bingaman, Stabenow, Blumenthal, Sherrod Brown, Boxer, Merkley and Franken.
The bill was also introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Henry A. Waxman, John D. Dingell, Sander Levin, George Miller, Pete Stark, and Rob Andrews. - rockefeller.senate.gov, 6/16/11
You can read the whole text of the bill here:
http://www.govtrack.us/...
The bill is currently being reintroduced in the Senate. Economist Dean baker makes the case for the Medicare Drug Savings Act:
“People have made a big point of arguing that the Medicare prescription drug prices are coming in at a lower price than had been projected,” said Baker who attributed the slow rise in prescription drug costs to the fact that innovation in the pharmaceutical industry has plateaued somewhat since its peak in the mid-1990s. He said the number of new products given priority review status by the Food and Drug Administration -- mean the drug is considered a breakthrough product -- has steadily declined since that time.
“We're happy that prescription drug costs have risen less rapidly, but the fact that it's gone with reduced innovation isn't good,” Baker said. “If we paid the same prices as people pay in other countries we would still have very substantial innovation.” - The Lund Report, 4/9/13
Horace wrote a great piece today about Big Pharma getting rich off the donut hole from medicare Part D that's worth a read:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
If you'd like to get more information on the Medicare Drug Savings Act, S. 1206, please contact Senator Rockefeller's office for more info:
202-224-6472
And how about donating to Merkley's 2014 re-election campaign as a way of thanking him for continuing to push the Medicare Drug Savings Act:
https://secure.actblue.com/...