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SNOWE-WYDEN
MEASURE TO ALLOW
HHS SECRETARY TO NEGOTIATE
FOR PRESCRIPTION DRUGS PASSES MAJOR HURDLE
Budget resolution now includes provision
that clears way
for Senators to pass legislation first introduced last year
March 15, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) today won approval
of language in the Senate’s FY2007 budget resolution that
is a critical step in strengthening the drug coverage offered
to seniors under the 2003 Medicare prescription drug benefit.
The amendment, adopted today by
a vote of 54-44, and co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein
(D-Calif.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Chuck
Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), is based on the Medicare
Enhancement for Needed Drugs (MEND) legislation Wyden and Snowe
introduced last year. It clears the way for Snowe and Wyden to
pass their legislation to give the Secretary of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) the specific authority to negotiate
lower prices for drug purchases through Medicare. Under the Senate
Budget rules, Wyden and Snowe would have to get a super-majority
vote in order pass their MEND legislation; with the adoption of
their amendment today, a simple majority vote will now be enough
to grant the bargaining authority to the HHS Secretary.
“The rapidly escalating price
of prescription drugs threatens to undermine the very drug benefit
Congress passed to deliver real savings to seniors,” said
Snowe. “Our amendment manages costs in a commonsense way
– harnessing the buying power of millions of seniors to
give them a better value for their health care dollar. The fact
is that negotiation will drive down costs, and I am pleased that
the Senate recognized it has the power to fix this problem now.”
“It’s common sense and
just good business practice to use the collective purchasing power
of some 40 million Medicare beneficiaries to get the best prices
for the medicines they need,” said Wyden. “This provision
is a sensible cost-containment measure that will help improve
the flawed Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors and
U.S. taxpayers alike. America’s seniors deserve reasonable
prices for their prescription drugs and this bipartisan amendment
works to ensure just that.”
The Snowe-Wyden amendment directs
the savings created by reducing the cost of the prescription drug
benefit to Medicare if Congress passes a bill that lifts the “non-interference”
language (the ban in the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act on negotiations)
to be used for deficit reduction or to improve the Medicare Prescription
Drug Benefit. The amendment also includes language stating that
under the provision, there can be no price-setting or uniform
formularies.
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