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 Senate
Finance Committee set to act on Medicare
Prescription Drug negotiation legislation soon
after Spring recess
Mar 29,
2007--The
Senate Finance Committee
plans to consider legislation that would allow the federal
government to negotiate prices directly with pharmaceutical
companies under the Medicare prescription drug benefit -- a practice
prohibited by the 2003 Medicare law -- "as soon as possible" after
the spring recess, according to a Democratic committee aide,
CongressDaily
reports.
According
to
CongressDaily,
other sources said that the bill produced by the committee "will be
less stringent" than similar legislation approved by the House
(Johnson,
CongressDaily,
3/29).
The House in January passed a bill (HR
4)
that would require the
HHS
secretary to negotiate prices directly with
pharmaceutical companies under the Medicare
prescription drug benefit and report to Congress in
six months (Kaiser
Daily Health Policy Report,
1/16).
Senate
Republican aides said the Senate version of the bill could take the
form of a "sense of the Senate" resolution that states the federal
government should have the ability to negotiate prices directly with
pharmaceutical companies under the Medicare prescription drug
benefit.
The
Democratic committee aide said that committee Chair Max Baucus
(D-Mont.) "has certainly said that the ban on negotiating drug
prices in the Medicare drug benefit should be lifted" and has
discussed with colleagues "what additional provisions may or may not
make the benefit work better for seniors."
However,
the aide could not confirm whether the legislation would take the
form of a resolution.
Prospects
After the spring recess, the full Senate will consider the bill
after it votes on legislation that would expand federal funds for
embryonic stem cell research, according to Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid (D-Nev.). "Assuming Reid sticks to that schedule, the
Finance Committee would have only a few weeks, at most, to produce a
bill,"
CongressDaily
reports.
Committee
ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) opposes legislation that
would allow the federal government to negotiate prices directly with
pharmaceutical companies under the Medicare prescription drug
benefit, and Senate Republican leaders "are poised for a fight over
the drug negotiation proposal, which they say has lost steam since
the midterm elections," according to
CongressDaily
(CongressDaily,
3/29).
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