Max Baucus: “I am thankful the Senator from Maine is still on the floor. I wish to respond to a couple points she made. I do not know…”

“I am thankful the Senator from Maine is still on the floor. I wish to respond to a couple points she made. I do not know that there is anybody in the Senate who wants to get a prescription drug benefit for seniors more than the Senator from Maine. Believe me, I understand that. I have been at many meetings with the senior Senator from Maine where she has made that very clear. There is also no one on the floor who wants to pass a prescription drug bill more than the senior Senator from Montana. The same is true of the Senator from Michigan, the Senator from Nebraska, and the Senator from West Virginia, as well as the current occupant of the chair, the Senator from Wisconsin. We all want to get a prescription drug benefit passed. On the one hand, there is the so-called tripartisan bill, which the Senator from Maine supports, and which is basically the insurance company model. On the other hand, there is the bill that would use pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, to administer a drug benefit. This is essentially the Medicare model. Reducing it to its basic simplicity, that is the argument. The Senator says she wants a prescription drug benefit passed, but she slyly indicates she wants hers passed. But her bill did not get a majority vote in the Senate. There are others who want to get prescription drug benefits passed who have a different view of what a prescription drug benefit should be, and that is the problem. Neither side wants to give in.”