Editorials, Opinion Pieces Address Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Negotiations Bill
- Saturday, January 27, 2007, 23:06
- Medicare
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Several newspapers recently published editorials, opinion pieces and a letter to the editor that discussed a bill passed last week by the House that would require the HHS secretary to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies on prices for medications under the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Summaries appear below.
* Akron Beacon Journal: The House bill “is seriously flawed” in that “it steers clear of a component that state governments, the Veterans Administration, private insurance companies and employers all have found to be crucial in managing drug costs: a drug formulary, a preferred list of commonly prescribed drugs offered at favorable cost,” according to a Beacon Journal editorial. House Democrats “hope to have it both ways with regard to powerful constituencies” by “avoid[ing] restrictions on seniors’ access to prescription drugs (something that should please drugmakers),” and “claim[ing] credit for forging ahead on the popular cause of negotiating drug prices,” according to the editorial (Akron Beacon Journal, 1/17).
* Arizona Daily Star: Requiring the HHS secretary to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on prices for medications under the Medicare prescription drug benefit is “a bad idea,” a Daily Star editorial states, adding, “Economic experts, patient advocacy groups and business leaders agree that it will not lower prices, but will limit choice.” The editorial concludes, “Competition and choice, not government interference, is the best way to provide drugs at the best prices” (Arizona Daily Star, 1/22).
* Dayton Daily News: The House bill “is designed to keep everyone honest — manufacturers, [prescription benefit] managers and regulators,” a Daily News editorial says, adding, the “bill doesn’t tell the Bush administration how to negotiate” and “doesn’t require the federal government to squeeze the last nickel out of drug makers.” According to the editorial, “The [HHS] secretary simply would have to negotiate and report the results. That’s the least we should expect from stewards of billions of dollars of public funds” (Dayton Daily News, 1/16).
* Houston Chronicle: A “sizable group” of Medicare beneficiaries who are eligible for a low-income subsidy that reduces out-of-pocket costs under the drug benefit have not applied for the extra help because, “[p]resumably, they’re unaware” of it, according to a Chronicle editorial. “Raising awareness” and “[t]aking full advantage of an existing entitlement is more practical and immediate than waiting for Congress to require negotiation with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug costs,” the editorial says (Houston Chronicle, 1/17).
* Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: It is a “mistake” that the House bill would prohibit the HHS secretary from establishing a formulary, according to a Journal Sentinel editorial, which adds, “By allowing [HHS] to establish reasonable formularies and giving the secretary more discretion than the House bill does, Medicare can deliver” lower drug prices (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/20).
* Springfield Republican: “The House bill is a giant step in the right direction, away from the dominance of special interests over the well-being of our nation’s seniors,” a Republican editorial states, concluding, “It’s now up to the Senate to take up the cause” (Springfield Republican, 1/16).
Opinion Pieces
* David Nicklaus, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “In any negotiation, the power lies with the person who’s willing to walk away,” according to Post-Dispatch columnist Nicklaus. Nicklaus writes that most private insurance companies “keep their coverage broad in order to attract customers, but just having the right to drop a drug … give the insurers clout” that the government will not have under the House bill (Nicklaus, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1/17).
* Rich Lowry, Washington Times: The “key” to the success of the Medicare prescription drug benefit has been the “absence of government negotiations” with pharmaceutical companies, Lowry, a syndicated columnist, writes in a Washington Times opinion piece. If Democrats “continue crusading against drug-industry profits,” they will “only obstruct medical progress, to the detriment of seniors and all of us” (Lowry, Washington Times, 1/18).
* Froma Harrop, Seattle Times: Allowing the HHS secretary to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies under the Medicare drug benefit would “save beneficiaries the hassle and time spent studying dozens of competing plans,” and also would lower premiums, decrease costs to taxpayers and reduce the number of beneficiaries who reach the “doughnut hole” coverage gap, syndicated columnist Harrop writes in a Seattle Times opinion piece (Harrop, Seattle Times, 1/22).
Letter to the Editor
The “very promise” of the Medicare prescription drug benefit is “undermined by increases in insurance premiums, deductibles and the Medicare ‘doughnut hole’ that all continue to rise at two to three times bigger than the inflation rate,” Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) write in a letter to the editor of the Washington Post in response to a recent editorial. A bill under consideration in the Senate would “assure that there is sufficient federal oversight of the Medicare drug benefit” and “step in if the market is not achieving lower prices,” Snowe and Wyden write, adding that under current law, “If a drug plan is unable to negotiate for discounts with a pharmaceutical manufacturer, it has nowhere to turn, because … the [HHS] secretary cannot intervene (Snowe/Wyden, Washington Post, 1/22).
“Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
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