Deborah Koff Ross: “I wrote a bill. It is H.R. 3626. It is a bill that will truly modernize Medicare to include medicine for our seniors. In…”

“I wrote a bill. It is H.R. 3626. It is a bill that will truly modernize Medicare to include medicine for our seniors. In that bill we hold the big drug manufacturers accountable. In that bill we demand the same kind of rebates from the big drug manufacturers that State Medicaid programs, that the Veterans Administration and that big HMOs have been demanding for years. And we do that because it is time that we held the big drug manufacturers accountable, and we can do that in a way that State Medicaid programs do it, a way that most privately held health insurance companies do it, the way most big HMOs do it, by demanding the same kind of rebates that they receive to help offset the cost for a meaningful drug benefit for our seniors. Let me say this. Those who know me know I am a Democrat, I am a conservative Democrat, and I probably cross party lines and vote with the Republicans just about as much as anybody on the Democratic side. And when they are right, I stand with them. But I can tell you, I am a small-town family pharmacy owner. I understand this issue, and they are dead wrong with this issue. First, they come up with this crazy idea of a prescription discount drug card. Again, they have been around forever. Seniors have paid for them. They have gone to their pharmacy. They have learned there is no meaningful savings to a so-called prescription drug card.”