Commentary; Posted: 4/18/07
Coleman urged to give Medicare power to negotiate
Skip Humphrey
Guest Columnist
There is a vote coming before the U.S. Senate that would give Medicare the power to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices.
To consumers, it makes common sense. Certainly, the government – with the leverage of 43 million Medicare beneficiaries – should be able to bargain with drug manufacturers to obtain lower drug prices.
Yet federal law prohibits Medicare from negotiating for lower prices. Sen. Norm Coleman has not yet decided how he will vote.
Let me give him some reasons to vote “yeah.”
1. Lower prices. If Medicare had the power to negotiate with the drug companies, we could lower drug prices for the Medicare program, creating savings for the taxpayers and the government.
As taxpayers, we should demand that the government get the best price for everything it purchases – including prescription drugs.
2. Minnesotans Agree. According to a Feb. 12, 2007 AARP poll of 500 Minnesotans 18 years and older, 93 percent of Minnesota residents want Medicare to use its bargaining power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs.
We don’t know who the other seven percent are – perhaps they work for the drug companies.
3. This Gives You a Chance to Stand Up to Drug Companies.
If you’ve attended any AARP or other senior gathering lately, you know that there are some strong sentiments against an industry that continues to raise prices, flood our airwaves with high-priced commercials, and hire about four lobbyists for every single Member of Congress.
The pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyists are desperate to stop this legislation.
Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a similar provision by a bipartisan vote of 255 – 170. Sen. Coleman’s leadership is needed to break the current stalemate in the Senate and commit to voting with us.
As this is debated in the halls of Congress in the next couple of weeks, it’s a showdown between the drug companies and consumers.
On behalf of the 675,000 members of AARP across Minnesota, I urge Sen. Coleman to support Secretarial Negotiating Authority when it comes before the U.S. Senate.
Sen. Coleman, we’re counting on you to stand up against the drug companies and for the consumers of Minnesota.
Hubert H. “Skip” Humphrey, III is state president of the AARP.
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