Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it seems very arbitrary to me to exclude potentially 85 million Americans from the protections this bill would provide when there is such a clear Federal nexus to act in this area. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 58 percent of workers insured in self-insured plans are actually in ``partially insured'' plans. The reason this matters is that some States may attempt to regulate these plans, believing they can, and then have their State laws challenged in the courts and preempted. Why not take the commonsense approach our bill does and simply ban the use of pharmacy gag clauses--an egregious practice that prevents pharmacists from telling their customers they could purchase their prescriptions with less money by paying out of pocket rather than using their insurance. We have the support of 40 medical and consumer groups for this bill, and this legislation is action we can take right now to help lower the cost of prescription drugs for some consumers. It has widespread bipartisan support. It came out of the HELP Committee unanimously, and it is supported by the administration. I urge a ``no'' vote on the amendment offered by the Senator from Utah and a ``yes'' vote on the underlying bill. ____________________”