Making Prescription Drugs Affordable
Posted in From the Trail, News Clips on July 31st, 2008
Al Announces His Plan to Lower Prescription Drug Prices
Yesterday, Al stood with Minnesota seniors and former nurse Rep. Erin Murphy from St. Paul to announce new proposals to take Medicare back from the big pharmaceutical companies and lower the cost of prescription drugs.
The Star Tribune, Pioneer Press and MPR all wrote about Al’s proposals to allow Medicare to negotiate drug costs with drug makers, to ban drug companies from advertising directly to consumers, and to allow safe re-importation of drugs from Canada.
From the Star Tribune:
U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken called Wednesday for the federal government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for seniors and to ban advertising that he says leads to unnecessary spending on medication.
Franken, a DFLer, accused Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of participating in “a massive betrayal of Minnesota seniors” in supporting a Medicare drug program passed in 2003 that bars the government from negotiating with drug companies to lower prices.
…
At a news conference at a St. Paul pharmacy, Franken said Coleman was “rewarded handsomely” with big contributions from drug companies for his support of the Medicare program, known as Part D. Coleman received $204,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical and health products industry in this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
…
Franken cited a recent congressional study showing the prescription drug program is costing taxpayers up to 30 percent more than it would have had the government negotiated prices.
Nearly one in four Minnesota seniors spends more than $100 a month in out-of-pocket expenses for prescriptions, he said.
The Pioneer Press referenced the new report showing that the Medicare Part D legislation supported by Norm Coleman and its requirement that the government not negotiate drug prices in that program has cost billions of dollars more than would have been spent if prices were negotiated.
When the Medicare prescription drug program was created in 2003, the legislation allowed private insurers to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over prices but didn’t allow the federal government to negotiate for the entire group of eligible seniors.
If Medicare were able to get the negotiated prices Medic-aid secured in 2006 and 2007, Medicare insurers would have saved $3.7 billion on the top 100 prescribed drugs, according to a recent report from the U.S. House oversight committee.
