Peter Roskam: “I want to thank Chairman Brady for his leadership on this. I have done a lot of work over the past several months, as I…”

“I want to thank Chairman Brady for his leadership on this. I have done a lot of work over the past several months, as I know we all have, of listening to my constituents in suburban Chicago, and here is what I have heard: They want us to take a multifaceted approach. One of the things that I am doing this morning is highlighting a portion of this bill that Mr. Brady mentioned in his opening statement, and that is a lock-in phenomenon. Here is the story: The power of this molecule, when it gets into our bodies, is breathtaking and is sobering. Here is one statistic that should make us shudder: One-third of part D Medicare beneficiaries were prescribed an opioid in 2016--one-third of Medicare part D beneficiaries were prescribed an opioid in 2016. There is nothing good that is going on with that. So here is what we are trying to do: We are saying that we need to resist pharmacy shopping. We need to resist doctor shopping. And we need to make sure that people can be identified who have a predisposition towards this addiction. So what this bill does--what part of this bill does--is it says: Medicare part D programs don't just have the option of requiring a lock-in program, we are now locking in on lock-in. We are saying: You have got to do this. Unambiguously, it is a mandate, it is a good mandate, and it is something that has been a long time coming.…”