Nancy L. Johnson: “I was an early and fervent supporter of providing health benefits to families on welfare as they made the difficult…”

“I was an early and fervent supporter of providing health benefits to families on welfare as they made the difficult transition to work, often to entry-level jobs not providing basic care for their children. So I appreciate the need for this bill for welfare recipients and for premium subsidies for our elderly and disabled citizens on very low incomes, but I do strongly object to the way these benefits are paid for in this bill. I regret that offsets I suggested were not adopted instead of this flat ban on ED drugs. Getting Congress involved in medical treatment decisions by limiting the availability of any category of prescription drugs sets a terrible precedent. Congress has repeatedly recognized that we should not be in the business of developing or defining formularies. Congress tasked the United States Pharmacopoeia with developing the categories and classes of drugs to be covered by the new prescription drug plans, and we specifically tasked the P&T committees in every Medicare drug plan offered to our seniors and disabled citizens with the responsibility of assuring that the formularies were medically correct and not politically correct. Furthermore, Medicare and Medicaid prescription drug plans have a number of tools at their disposal to ensure that ED drugs are not abused and could be covered only when prescribed for medically appropriate care.…”