May 18, 2008

Reducing the Costs of Prescription Drugs

When Congress passed the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act of 2003, Senator Wyden pledged to work to improve the Medicare drug benefit.  To that end, Senator Wyden and Senator Olympia Snowe introduced the bipartisan Medicare Enhancement for Needed Drugs (MEND) Act.  The MEND Act directly addresses the crisis of skyrocketing drug costs by giving 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.  Currently, the HHS Secretary is prevented from bargaining for prescription drugs under the Medicare program.  Under the Snowe-Wyden proposal, that ban would be lifted and the HHS Secretary would be required to negotiate when: only one brand name of a drug is available; a drug was created with substantial taxpayer funding for its research and development; a private insurance plan requests help; or for any fallback plan for which the Secretary must provide.  The legislation requires the Secretary to provide a fallback plan that eliminates the coverage gap, also known as the donut hole, if the coverage is not available.  Savings from the Medicare negotiations provision would go toward deficit reduction or Part D Medicare improvement.

Although an amendment Senator Wyden offered to the Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005 based on this legislation narrowly failed last Congress, he has reintroduced prescription drug negotiation legislation, S.250, in the 110th Congress and is committed to making Medicare's prescription drug program better for all Oregonians.  The health of Oregonians is of the utmost importance to Senator Wyden and is one of his top legislative priorities.

Senator Snowe and Senator Wyden also introduced the Medicare Prescription Drug Lifeline Act, S.3703, in the 109th congress.  This legislation would allow seniors to enroll in plans which provide coverage of covered part D (Voluntary Prescription Drug Benefit Program) drugs after they have reached the coverage gap for their current plan. Unfortunately, this legislation was not considered in the 109th Congress before it adjourned.

If you would like information on enrolling in a Medicare prescription drug plan, or to compare plans, file an appeal, or learn your rights under the Medicare prescription drug program, you can go online to http://www.medicare.gov/pdphome.asp or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).  To protect against fraudulent plans, please read the FTC’s warning at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/meddalrt.htm

Senator Wyden is also a co-sponsor of the Pharmaceutical Market and Drug Safety Act, S.242, which would allow U.S. licensed pharmacists and drug wholesalers to import Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved medications from Canada, Japan, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and allow individuals to import prescription drugs for their own personal use, including from Canadian pharmacies via the Internet.

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