Entitled to Know

Keep your eyes open for activity in the Senate over the next few days on Medicare drug negotiation legislation. The Senate Finance Committee will markup S.3, the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007 at 6:40p tonight and the bill is expected before the full Senate next week. Language in the Senate bill doesn’t go as far as HR 4, the House version (which the President says he’ll veto) and according to the New York Times today the White House is also working against this Senate bill.

The vast majority of Americans support allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices but the drug industry has spent millions in advertising and lobbying to stop any changes which might allow the government to use the purchasing power of 43 million seniors to lower their drug bills. Unfortunately, money talks…soon we’ll see who the Senate is listening to. Seniors or Pharma?

Here is our latest News Release and position paper on the importance of price negotiation to our members and beneficiaries nationwide. Medicare Monitor also has a number of posts detailing the latest activity in the Senate.