[QUAD-L] Fwd: Tell Senators Grassley and Baucus to Reconsider Negotiating with Drug Makers

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From: Asclepios/MRC Advocacy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Carol ritchie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 14:09:31 -0700
Subject: Tell Senators Grassley and Baucus to Reconsider Negotiating with Drug Makers

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Asclepios

Your Weekly Medicare Consumer Advocacy Update

ACT NOW: Tell Senators Grassley and Baucus to Reconsider Negotiating with Drug Makers

June 16, 2005 • Volume 5, Issue 24

 

Ouch!

 

Recent headlines about the pharmaceutical industry are shocking: pharmaceutical companies are taking Medicaid programs—government health insurance for the poorest and most vulnerable—for a ride. 

 

State and federal prosecutors are investigating 150 cases—totaling more than $1 billion in criminal fines and civil penalties—where drug makers allegedly overcharged state and federal health care programs.

 

Two years ago, Abbott Laboratories is said to have charged the California Medicaid program $55 a dose for an antibiotic, while it charged pharmacies only $6.29 for the same medication.  Under existing law, companies are required to give Medicaid programs the best price—that is, the lowest price—that they give to any drug purchaser.

 

Will drug companies remain in the spotlight for rampant fraud as they move into the immensely lucrative market created by the new Medicare drug benefit?

 

From the start, the Medicare drug benefit design favored the drug industry’s interest over the interests of people with Medicare and the American taxpayer.

 

The Medicare law expressly prohibits Medicare from negotiating prescription drug prices on behalf of the 42 million older adults and people with disabilities who have Medicare.  Federal agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense are allowed to use their vast size to wield bulk purchasing power, negotiating the lowest possible prescription drug prices—so why can’t Medicare?  The price of every service that Medicare covers—from doctors’ visits to hospital stays—is negotiated by Medicare, so why is Medicare coverage of prescription drugs different?

 

Basic economics tells us that Medicare, with 42 million enrollees, could exert immense downward pricing pressure on the prescription drug market. Americans on average pay double what Canadians pay for the same medicine. Why, then, did the new Medicare law ban Medicare from negotiating drug prices?  Could it be that it would mean less profit for drug makers?

 

If Congress were trying to create a comprehensive drug benefit for all people with Medicare, there would be one prescription drug plan within Medicare that would harness the purchasing power of the 42 million people with Medicare to negotiate the lowest prescription drug prices.

 

It’s time for the prime movers of the Medicare drug benefit to look the American people square in the eye and choose the public interest over the profiteering of the world’s drug companies.   Tell Senators Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, to reconsider—to create a true drug benefit that harnesses the purchasing power of Medicare through a Medicare-operated drug program. 

 

Click here to send a letter to Senators Baucus and Grassley asking them to create a real drug program that allows Medicare to negotiate prices with drug makers. (We encourage you to personalize your letter.)

 

Medical Record

 

The ban on Medicare negotiation of drug prices is unprecedented. It is inconsistent with Medicare coverage of all other services. The ban is also inconsistent with prescription drug coverage in every other industrialized nation in the world (PBS, 2000) and the United States’ own Department of Veterans Affairs (Time, January 25, 2004).

 

The new Medicare law is projected to increase drug makers’ profits by $139 billion, or 38.4 percent, over eight years (“61 Percent of Medicare’s New Prescription Drug Subsidy Is Windfall Profit to Drug Makers,” A. Sager and D. Socolar, Boston University School of Public Health, October 2003).

 

If the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) were to negotiate drug prices down to the level of what other industrialized nations pay, it could close the “doughnut hole,” established by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which leaves people without coverage for drug expenses that exceed $2,251. Coverage resumes when a person reaches $5,100 in drug expenses (Testimony of Professor Gerard Anderson, Johns Hopkins University, before the Senate Finance Committee, April 27, 2004).

 

According to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation health poll report, 77 percent of adults in the United States say Congress should change the law to allow the federal government to negotiate with drug companies to reduce drug prices for people on Medicare, and the same majority (77 percent) say that Congress should allow patients to buy prescription drugs imported from Canada (“Kaiser Health Poll Report,” Kaiser Family Foundation, April 18, 2005).

Since the passage of the Medicare Modernization Act, more than 10 bills have been introduced in Congress to authorize Medicare to negotiate drug prices.  Most recently Representative Marion Berry, Democrat of Arkansas, introduced the “Medicare Prescription Drugs Savings Act” in the House in February along with 43 cosponsors, and a similar bill was introduced by Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, in the Senate. 

Fast Relief: What You Can Do

 

Write a letter to the authors of the Medicare prescription drug benefit—Senators Baucus and Grassley—asking them to create a drug program that allows Medicare to negotiate prices with drug makers.

 

Click here to send a letter today! (We encourage you to personalize your letter.)

*****

 

Don't Let Your Suffering Go Unnoticed

Are you struggling to pay for your prescription drugs or get the health care you need? Work with the Medicare Rights Center to bring your story to the ears of policymakers, the press and the public in an effort to expose the shortcomings of the American health care system.  To learn more about how to make your voice heard in the national Medicare debate, visit www.medicarerights.org/hiddenlives.html.

 

The Louder Our Voice, the Stronger Our Message

Asclepios—named for the Greek and Roman god of medicine who, acclaimed for his healing abilities, was at one point the most worshipped god in Greece—is a weekly action alert designed to keep you up to date with Medicare program and policy issues, and advance advocacy strategies to address them.  Please help build awareness of key Medicare consumer issues by forwarding this action alert to your friends and encouraging them to subscribe today, by writing to [EMAIL PROTECTED].  

Medicare Rights Center (MRC) is the largest independent source of health care information and assistance in the United States for people with Medicare.  A national nonprofit founded in 1989, MRC helps older adults and people with disabilities get good, affordable health care.

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