Democrats Vow to Push to Cut Drug Prices?

REUTERS ^ | May 11, 2002 | REUTERS--WASHINGTON

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Democrats made a Mother's Day weekend pledge on Saturday to work to reduce the costs of prescription drugs for all Americans.

In their party's weekly radio address, Sens. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Jean Carnahan of Missouri offered a plug for Democratic legislation on this front while they denounced competing Republican measures as inadequate.

"We believe we need to tackle this problem with the same sense of urgency felt by our seniors who are forced to choose between medicine and food," Stabenow said.

"We have to do better," Carnahan said.

Rising health care costs have been a hot political issue, but Republicans and Democrats are not expected to find much, if any, common ground on it before this November's congressional elections.

Last week, leaders of the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, still struggling with how to revise payments, admitted they may be unable to pass their Medicare prescription drug plan by their Memorial Day deadline.

Stabenow and Carnahan touted Democratic plans to lower prescription drug prices as well as Democratic efforts to provide a prescription drug benefit under Medicare, the federal health plan for the elderly and disabled.

The measures include ones that would change patent laws, which now let manufacturers keep less expensive generic drugs off the market, and encourage these companies to spend more on research and less on taxpayer-subsidized advertising.

Focusing on a key battleground, Carnahan said: "We must give our seniors an effective prescription drug plan as part of Medicare. The Republican plan simply isn't good enough."

"Under the Republican plan, a senior who pays $5,000 a year for prescription drugs would have to foot 86 percent of the bill," Carnahan said. "That's hardly better than no plan at all."

Calling for bipartisanship, Stabenow said, "Mother's Day is really a celebration of family, and in honor of our families we pledge our commitment -- and invite our Republican colleagues to join us -- in this critical effort to lower prescription drug prices and provide a real Medicare drug benefit."

[johniegrad]

This is one of those high profile issues that politicians will try to take advantage of. The devil will be in the details yet the proposals will be complicated enough that few people will want to think through the scenarios of unanticipated consequences for the taxpayers, government agencies, pharmacies, and the elderly. The democrats will try to take advantage of sound bites to turn this into an elderly entitlement issue while trying to steer clear of explaining just how they will do it. This article is just one example of that. This is going to become just like the ads for "Help, I've fallen and can't get up" or funeral insurance. At the same time the political parties vie for elderly voters through the entitlement scams, they will continue to cut back on care for the most vulnerable of the elderly in our nursing homes. Medicare is very dirty business.

[CrossCheck]

While they're at it, how about lowering the cost of new Corvettes, beachfront property, micro-brewed beer, and a house to go on the el cheapo beachfront property. If the Dims can do that for me, they've got my vote.

[johniegrad]

What troubles me the most is the way that the prescription benefit for the elderly will be politicized. The democrats will turn into absolute whores to maintain their voting block and AARP. This will include all kinds of socialistic ideas about private businesses and their obligations to their voting block. This is really going to get disgusting. Here in Minnesota some of the the Dems have already taken to shipping busload of elderly to Canada for their drugs simply to make political hay. Medicare is very ugly business.

[Newbomb Turk]

Free VIAGRA for the masses.

[Fish out of Water]

Index Bump

[Wyatt's Torch]

Stabenow and Carnahan touted Democratic plans to lower prescription drug prices

So they intend to prevent drug manufacturers from earning a return on their investment? Sure, that should encourage more R&D.....

[SCHROLL]

Another smart (\sarcasm) move by the Dem's. When the Drug Companies leave the US because of this nonsense and never patent another drug in this country what would they have accomplished? Socialism kills, it doesn't make every one equal.

[Whispering Smith]

It seems to me that applying such logic to the $20+ a barrel the Saudis are charging for their $2- barrels of oil would get a lot more people a lot more money. It might even free up enough such that the price of prescription pharmaceuticals was not an issue.