Chuck Grassley: “I am back again tonight to talk about the Medicare drug benefit. As I said yesterday, the 110th Congress will consider…”

“I am back again tonight to talk about the Medicare drug benefit. As I said yesterday, the 110th Congress will consider legislation that would fundamentally change the benefit. The public and Medicare beneficiaries need to fully understand the proposed changes and how they would affect them. When we talk about the public and Medicare beneficiaries, remember, for the most part, we are talking about the senior citizens of America and people who are on Social Security disability. Yesterday I spoke about how the benefit uses prescription drug plans in competition to keep costs down and how well that has worked. Today I want to get to the crux of this debate, the so-called prohibition on Government negotiation with drugmakers. Opponents of the Medicare drug benefit have twisted the law to come up with their absurd claim that Medicare will not be negotiating with drugmakers. They misrepresented the noninterference clause. The language does not prohibit Medicare from negotiating with drugmakers; it prohibits the Government from interfering in negotiations that are ongoing all the time. So it is a prohibition on Government negotiating. It is not a prohibition on negotiation. It is very important because it is not the Government agency itself that is doing the negotiating. It is the private prescription drug plans that are doing the negotiation.”