John Spratt: “let's make something clear: the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 directs drug companies to grant discounts on all drugs…”

“let's make something clear: the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 directs drug companies to grant discounts on all drugs that are supplied to the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Public Health Service, and the Coast Guard. These are significant discounts. On average they lower the cost to the government for pharmaceuticals provided to beneficiaries by 30 to 40 percent. The Department of Defense is able to take advantage of these discounts in its mail order program and in dispensing drugs in its military treatment facilities, hospitals and clinics. But the pharmaceutical companies have been balking, refusing to grant these discounts to TRICARE beneficiaries. Those are the families of active duty members and families of reservists deployed. TRICARE beneficiaries, wanting to shop, understandably, with their local pharmacy, their local corner drugstore, they have not been able to obtain the advantages of these discounted drug prices. The Senate has recognized the problem here and has acted to resolve it by simply providing that in the future, after this bill becomes law, the discounted drug provision will apply not just to military treatment facilities, not just to the mail order program, but to TRICARE beneficiaries going to private drugstores. And it should. Can anybody tell me a reason it should not?…”