April Canadian Pharmacy News

News Issue April 2006

In This Issue: Senators Want Medicare Changes Spring Allergy Season What You Had to Say Customer Feedback

Nervous GOP Senators want Medicare Changes
INDUSRY, BUSH OPPOSE PRICE NEGOTIATIONS
Los Angeles Times

The Republican-led Senate, worried that seniors will punish GOP lawmakers at the polls for missteps in the new Medicare prescription-drug program, voted Wednesday to authorize the government to lengthen the sign-up period for the benefit and to negotiate cut-rate prices with drug companies.

The Senate votes provided fresh evidence that the prescription drug insurance program, which President Bush has held up as one of the leading achievements of his presidency, has instead turned into a political liability.

The vote to allow the government to negotiate for discounts on drugs marked a major policy reversal for the Senate and a rare move against the pharmaceutical industry, one of the leading donors to federal political campaigns, with most of its money going to Republicans. Negotiations for drug discounts were barred under the 2003 law that created the prescription benefit.

Although the Senate action does not carry the force of law because the amendments were attached to a budget resolution that provides only guidance for legislation, it carries political significance by putting the administration on notice that it cannot depend on routine approval by Congress of its implementation of the drug program.

The votes came as Bush, who has acknowledged the widespread confusion among seniors over the new benefit, personally felt the sting of seniors' unhappiness as he faced sharp questions about the program Wednesday during a visit to a Maryland senior center. The trip was intended to promote the prescription benefit and to encourage seniors to sign up for the plan before May 15. After that date, they will have to pay a surcharge to enroll.

Bush said he was committed to keeping the May 15 deadline in place. Democrats have argued for weeks that the government should extend the initial enrollment period, given the confusion over how to sign up for the benefit and the widespread problems that have left many who did sign up unable to get their prescriptions filled or paid for.

Democrats have long said the government, which spends billions of dollars annually on pharmaceuticals through Medicare, ought to be able to negotiate with drug companies for discounts, as other big customers do.

But it was only Wednesday that enough Republicans joined them for the Senate to take action. The vote authorizing Medicare to negotiate on prices, as private insurers do now, was a particularly bitter pill for the administration, which has consistently sided with the drug companies against negotiated price levels.

"The rapidly escalating price of prescription drugs threatens to undermine the very drug benefit Congress passed to deliver real savings to seniors," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a sponsor of the provision.

Ken Johnson, senior vice president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry trade association, said the drug companies already are negotiating prices with the prescription drug plans available to Medicare recipients.

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