Max Baucus: “I am going to vote for the Graham-Miller amendment because it is, to my mind, the best proposal before us. It will…”

“I am going to vote for the Graham-Miller amendment because it is, to my mind, the best proposal before us. It will provide affordable prescription drug coverage throughout the country. I think that is the best policy. But it now appears there may not be enough votes for that amendment. The same, I might add, is also true of the Grassley amendment, which embodies the so-called tripartisan approach. If that turns out to be the case, we will be at a stalemate. At that point, we will have to decide whether there is some way to resolve our remaining differences so we can write a prescription drug bill that can pass. With that in mind, I would like to briefly discuss the three key remaining differences. The first, and probably most significant, is referred to as the delivery model. That may sound like some kind of technical jargon, but it is actually a very important matter and will determine whether we are passing some theoretical, pie-in-the-sky prescription drug benefit that works on paper but fails out in the real world or whether we are passing one that will really get prescription drugs to seniors at affordable prices.”