Posted by NRLN Urges Congressional Leaders To Provide Savings On Prescription Drugs
I want to inform you about the communications that has been taking place with Congressional leaders on the need to pass legislation to provide Americans–especially retirees–with savings on prescription drugs.
At the end of my message is the text of a letter faxed last Wednesday, July 22, to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A similar letter was personalized and faxed to the Chairmen of the House Committees working on health care legislation–Representatives George Miller, Charles Rangel and Henry Waxman. Earl Pomeroy, an influential member of the House Ways and Means Committee, was also sent the letter. Because the “Blue Dog” Democrat Coalition in the House has been vocal on health care legislation, letters were sent to two of its leaders, Representatives Mike Ross and Jim Cooper.
On the Senate side, letters went to Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senators Edward Kennedy and Max Baucus whose Committees are dealing with the Senate’s health care bills. A letter on the prescription drug issue was also sent to Peter Orszag, White House Budget Director.
During the past week I researched and wrote, with support from our Washington staff, a whitepaper titled: “Prescription Drug Costs And National Health Care – A Call For Action.” The whitepaper points out to Congressional leaders the need to pass legislation to provide safe, less expensive prescription drugs to the U.S. market.
The whitepaper tells Senate and House leaders that Congress has the opportunity to bring about true health care reform, significantly reduce health care costs, and to simultaneously enable a truly competitive marketplace for prescription drugs in the our country, by passing legislation that: 1) Enables re-importation and importation of prescription drugs. 2) Enables Medicare to develop formularies and take competitive bids for prescription drugs sold under the Medicare D plans. 3) Staffs and funds the FDA to reduce the generic drug approval back log and demand that all manufacturers pay fees to support generic drug testing.
I encourage you to read the whitepaper posted on the NRLN website at:
http://www.nrln.org/BKLETTERS/Whitepaper%20Prescription%20Drugs%20Final%20PDF%20072709.pdf
In addition, last Thursday Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley was joined by twenty-two other Senators in sending a letter to the Senate Finance Committee urging the panel to reform the Medicare Part D prescription drug program as a part of health reform to make it more affordable for seniors and the government. The whitepaper is also being delivered to these 23 Senators who apparently see the need for reducing prescription drug costs for Medicare participants.
Gaining a better deal for retirees on prescription drugs will be part of the health care legislation message that NRLN Grassroots Network members will discuss with their Senators and Representatives when they meet with them on Capitol Hill on September 15 – 17. If you are not among the individuals who have signed up to be involved in our mid-September event, you have only until August 15 to reserve a hotel room at the NRLN’s discount rate. If you want to come to Washington to lobby for health care benefits, pension protection and bankruptcy law reform, send a request for more information to nrlnmessage@msn.com .
Bill Kadereit, President
National Retiree Legislative Network
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July 22, 2009
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker
United States House of Representatives
235 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0508
Dear Madam Speaker:
As the President of the National Retiree Legislative Network which represents the interests of more than 2 million retirees from 50 states, I have been closely following the news reports on the deliberations in the U.S. House of Representatives on national health care reform legislation. While progress is being made, I believe that Americans could be provided with immediate health care savings if Congress would include provisions which would:
1. Allow full importation of safe, less expensive prescription drugs from countries certified by the Federal Drug Administration. Adequately fund the FDA to properly oversee prescription drug imports.
2. Sufficiently staff the FDA to reduce the backlog of generic drugs and streamline the process to bring generic drugs to the market in a timelier manner, and fund these activities through fees from the drug companies.
3. Implement competitive bidding for prescription drugs by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, including establishing a national formulary.
4. Competitive bidding has proven to be very cost-effective for participants in the Veterans Administration health care program and it can achieve similar results for the CMS.
5. Pass a resolution asking the Attorney General to take legal action against drug companies that collude verbally or by contract to control pricing or subvert free market practices by paying off generic manufacturers for withholding the introduction of generic drugs until brand name patents expire or for any other reason, a.k.a. “pay-for-delay or “reverse payments” deals.
6. Ask the Congressional Budget Office to conduct a study to determine the cost savings to be gained from these actions.
I am confident that the CBO will find that these actions would save far more than the agreement that was struck by the White House with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) designed to find $80 billion in savings over the next 10 years. The pharmaceutical industry has made the $80 billion in promised health care savings sound like it is a sufficiently good deal for Americans that no other legislative initiatives are necessary. However, even if that $80 billion in voluntary savings could be enforced, it represents less than 3 percent of the projected dollars that Americans will spend on drugs during the next 10 years.
Congress must take action that is in the best interest of all Americans and reducing the cost of prescription drugs will benefit our nation’s citizens. U.S. drug makers should have global competition just as other American industries must compete with products from foreign countries. The NRLN is passionate about this issue because too many retirees have to decide between spending much of their fixed income for medicines, buying food, or paying the mortgage or rent.
If there is anything that the NRLN can do to help make the case for immediately passing legislation to achieve savings on prescription drugs, please contact Marta Bascom, the NRLN’s Executive Director in Washington, DC. She can be reached on 703-863-9611. We look forward to your leadership on this issue of such great importance.
Sincerely,
Signed Bill Kadereit
Bill Kadereit, President
National Retiree Legislative Network