Bishop Supports New Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Bill

Press Release

Congressman Tim Bishop announced that he is a original cosponsor of the new Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2010 introduced today by Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.).

Supporters are calling for swift action on the standalone bill, even as congressional leaders work with President Obama to pass comprehensive health reform legislation. The bill is based on a provision in the House-passed Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962).

The legislation would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate prescription drug prices on behalf of Medicare Part D beneficiaries for the first time since 2004, a move that could save taxpayers $156 billion over ten years.

"It makes no sense to pay retail rates for wholesale purchases of prescriptions drugs," said Bishop. "We must put an end to this misguided policy, which has costs seniors and taxpayers billions of dollars a year."

Taxpayers fund more than three-quarters of the cost of the Medicare Part D drug benefit, accounting for $50 billion worth of drugs in 2009 alone. Yet the program, which serves 28 million seniors, was barred from negotiating rates with the pharmaceutical industry by legislation enacted in 2004 by the Bush Administration and the former Republican majority in Congress.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has reduced costs significantly by negotiating rates. A Families USA report found that the top five Medicare Part D insurers charged prices 58 percent higher than the VA for 20 commonly prescribed drugs.

In 2007 the House passed a bill similar to the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2010 by a vote of 255 to 170 with strong bipartisan support and 198 cosponsors. The measure gathered further momentum last November when it was included in the Affordable Health Care for America Act and passed by the House.

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