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AMA Says Medicare Should Negotiate Drug Prices,
Reports New York Times
 Oct.
17, 2004 The New York Times reported today that the American Medical
Association has decided to join the fight to get the Bush Administration
to allow Medicare to negotiate with drug manufacturers for lower prices
on prescription medicine for Americas senior citizens.
When the
new Medicare law was written, the government specifically prohibited
Medicare from such negotiations and this has been one of the major
objections to the bill be seniors.
Authors of the law included that provision out of
fear that government involvement could overwhelm the free market,
leading to federal regulation of drug prices - "price-fixing'' by
federal bureaucrats, in the words of Senator Charles E. Grassley,
Republican of Iowa, as reported by Robert Pear in the NYT article.
The American Medical Association lobbied last year
for the Medicare law but now says Congress should pass legislation
giving the secretary of health and human services authority to negotiate
contracts with manufacturers of drugs that will be covered by Medicare,
said the Times.
Democrats have taken the lead in trying to repeal
the ban on federal negotiations with drug manufacturers under Medicare.
In the presidential debate on Wednesday,
Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, said Medicare should be
allowed to save money through "bulk purchasing'' of drugs. But, Mr.
Kerry said, "rather than help seniors have less expensive drugs, the
president made it illegal, illegal, for Medicare to actually go out and
bargain for lower prices.'' As a result, he said, drug companies will
receive a "windfall profit.''
Mr. Kerry did not vote on the legislation when it
received final Senate approval in November, but he had criticized it
earlier.
Within hours after Mr. Bush signed the Medicare law
last year, the Democratic leaders of the House and the Senate,
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Tom Daschle of
South Dakota, introduced bills to give federal officials the "authority
to negotiate prices with manufacturers'' of drugs covered by Medicare.
For the rest of the
story in the New York Times
Click Here
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