Schakowsky: Allow Medicare to Negotiate Lower Prices For Prescription Drugs

SCHAKOWSKY: ALLOW MEDICARE TO NEGOTIATE LOWER PRICES FOR PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

WASHINGTON, D.C.–U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky today spoke on the floor in support of H.R. 4, the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act:

Mr. Speaker, it is a delight to see you in the chair.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 4, the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act, to require Medicare negotiation for lower drug prices, and I thank Chairman Dingell for his leadership.

In 2003 the pharmaceutical industry spent over $100 million to lobby Congress, hiring the equivalent of a lobbyist for every Member to protect their interests in the new drug benefit. And they got what they wanted.

As the New York Times reported this past November: ``For big drug companies, the new Medicare prescription benefit is proving to be a financial windfall, larger than even the most optimistic Wall Street analysts had predicted.''

One of the main reasons for the drug company windfall is the so-called ``noninterference'' clause, the provision written into the law at the behest of the drug companies prohibiting Medicare from using its bargaining power to negotiate for drug discounts.

Just think about it for a minute: Medicare is involved in making sure that prices are reasonable and affordable for every other benefit, from wheelchairs to hospital charges to hospice care. But it is prohibited from doing so for prescription drugs.

Other large purchasers, from the VA to State governments to large employers, use their bargaining clout to get affordable prices. But Medicare is prohibited from doing so on behalf of the 40 million seniors and persons with disabilities and the taxpayers who help pay for benefit.

This week, Families USA released a study showing that part D prices for the top 20 drugs used by seniors are on average 58 percent higher than prices at the VA. Other studies show that some part D drug prices are as much as 10 times the VA prices, and even higher than the prices available at Costco.com or Drugstore.com.

AARP, which operates a part D plan and supported the original bill, wrote to support this bill saying "plans are not always able to exercise the kind of negotiating leverage that could result from secretarial negotiation.''

In the first 6 months of part D's implementation, drug company profits increased $8 billion. It is time to protect the interests of the American people, not the profits of the drug companies. It is time to pass H.R. 4.