Ron Wyden: “I cannot support the devastating cuts to health care that are in the budget reconciliation conference report. I have…”

“I cannot support the devastating cuts to health care that are in the budget reconciliation conference report. I have fought to slow health care spending, but that is not what is in this conference report. This conference report slashes and bums the health care countryside like the barbarians descending on Rome. This conference report is not about reform or creating a decent health system for the poor and for seniors--it is about dismantling the system as we know it. For starters, the Senate-passed bill increased drug rebates so that Medicaid beneficiaries would get better prices on their drugs. The Senate bill increased the minimum rebates that drug manufacturers are required to pay the Medicaid Program for drugs. The Senate package also contained a provision that would have expanded the rebate to include managed care drug plans. None of these improvements, which would have produced savings of $10.5 billion over 10 years and have helped ensure Medicaid participants get better prescription drug prices, is included in the conference report. The conference report reopens the Medicare Modernization Act, MMA,-- not to make improvements in the drug benefit but to push those with a little more income to pay higher Part B premiums sooner.…”