Dianne Feinstein: “I rise today to cosponsor S. 1999, the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Reduction Act, which strikes language known as…”

“I rise today to cosponsor S. 1999, the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Reduction Act, which strikes language known as the ``noninterference clause'' included in the recently passed conference report accompanying the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act of 2003. I believe that language preventing the Secretary from leveraging the enormous purchasing power of the Federal Government will mean our seniors may pay more for their drugs than they could be if that language was modified to allow the Secretary negotiating ability. America's seniors already pay the highest drug prices in the world, even though American taxpayers subsidize the research that produces many of those drugs. So this legislation gives the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, authority to negotiate contracts with manufacturers of covered Medicare Part D prescription drugs in order to ensure that enrollees in Medicare prescription drug plans, PDPs, pay the lowest possible price. The authority given to the HHS Secretary is similar to that given to other Federal entities that purchase prescription drugs in bulk. I voted for the Medicare prescription drug conference report because it delivered voluntary prescription drug coverage to this Nation's 41 million Medicare beneficiaries. Too many Americans today face the terrible choice of paying for rent or groceries or paying for their prescription drugs.”