Political Quotes

“I rise today with Senators Bingaman, Rockefeller, McCain, Frist, Alexander, Lincoln, Bunning, Smith, Bob Graham, Santorum, Kerry, Kennedy and Hatch to introduce a modest but important piece of legislation, the Safety Net Hospital Pharmacy Access Act. This legislation would correct a small error in current law that prohibits safety-net hospitals from being able to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for the lowest prices they can get. Let me provide some background on this problem. In 1990, Congress established the Medicaid drug-rebate program to ensure that the Medicaid program pays no more than a pharmaceutical manufacturer's ``best price'' for a covered outpatient drug. So whatever was the lowest price the manufacturer offered to anyone, this becomes the price Medicaid pays under this ``best price'' rule. Unfortunately, this rule provides an incentive for pharmaceutical manufacturers not to offer deep discounts to anyone, given that these prices may become the new price that Medicaid pays.”