Jack Reed: “I rise in support of the Enzi-Reed pharmacy access amendment. I compliment my colleague and friend, Senator Enzi from…”

“I rise in support of the Enzi-Reed pharmacy access amendment. I compliment my colleague and friend, Senator Enzi from Wyoming. We have worked on several issues with respect to the pharmacy benefits. It has been a pleasure and it has been productive, not only for ourselves but for the professional pharmacy community. Pharmacists are the third largest health care profession in the country in terms of numbers of practitioners, and they are becoming increasingly more central to our health care system. This amendment is designed to accomplish two very important objectives with respect to the proposed Medicare pharmacy benefit for seniors. First, its aim is to assure transparency and accountability in the collection and dissemination of negotiated savings by Medicare prescription drug benefit plans and Medicare Advantage plans. Second, it is designed to guarantee Medicare beneficiaries access to community pharmacies when filling prescriptions of 90 days or longer. Without the Enzi-Reed amendment, these protections, these safeguards, these essential elements would not be present in the bill we are considering today.”