John Ensign: “while I support the underlying amendment, I want to talk about a prescription drug proposal that I believe, and the…”

“while I support the underlying amendment, I want to talk about a prescription drug proposal that I believe, and the other authors of this bill believe, could be the answer that seniors are looking for around the country. Senator Hagel and Senator Gramm and Senator Lugar and myself have been working on a proposal that I have worked on for a couple years along with Senator Hagel. This proposal, to keep it very brief, has two major components. The first component of our proposal allows every senior to participate on a voluntary basis. They sign up for a $25 fee. This takes care of just the administrative costs. This $25 fee allows them to get a prescription drug discount card. We use the private sector. The private sector will set up what are called pharmaceutical benefit managers. These managers will offer certain drug plans. Seniors can choose between those drug plans. The better the drug plan, the better chance they have of attracting seniors. It is estimated there will be somewhere between 25 to 40 percent savings for seniors using this prescription drug discount card. The reason they will save money is, very simply, that they are taking advantage of volume buying.”