Karen Thurman: “That is exactly right, and this is not a model that quite frankly is obscure in this government. It is going on. We are…”

“That is exactly right, and this is not a model that quite frankly is obscure in this government. It is going on. We are seeing it within the VA system. The VA system, in fact, does just that. They negotiate for military retirees and veterans for the purposes of buying medicines. We do it. We already do it, and it works; and because of it, we have been able to really expand. And for military retirees, they now have a prescription drug benefit that costs them $3 for a generic, $9 for a brand name a month or they can do a mail order, which would be for a 3-month period, $3 for generic and $9 for brand name over a 3-month period. So there are very good things going on and standards that have already been set by the Federal Government for some parts. Then if we thought about it, if then we are negotiating for, I think it is, something like 22, 25 million veterans, plus 40 million Medicare, we now have a very good possibility of looking at some things that could happen or we can do, I think, what the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Allen) has talked about, certainly looking at what the costs are in other countries, and at least making it so those costs were no different here than they were there, whether it be Canada, Mexico, UK, whatever, having that a possibility out there. There are just things, but it kind of goes back to what we talked about. We are not having a debate.…”