Thomas Daschle: “I must say it is perfectly in concert with the sentiments expressed in similar articles in South Dakota. During the last…”

“I must say it is perfectly in concert with the sentiments expressed in similar articles in South Dakota. During the last break, when I was home holding meetings regarding this program, we had standing room only crowds in every single meeting, and those crowds were almost universally angered, frustrated, and concerned about their circumstances as a result of this legislation passing. Much of their anger... is directed towards the organization AARP, for their failure to stand up for citizens, and I think that is understandable. Their frustration and their anxiety goes deeper than just an organization. They are concerned about their own livelihoods and what it may mean for them and how troubling it is to them that the Government is actually forbidden from negotiating lower drug prices, which is what the goal was in the first place. So it is their inability to get lower drug prices, their concern about having to pay exorbitant premiums and fees for a limited benefit, their concern about being pushed into an HMO, their concern about whether they can access drugs from other countries like Canada where prices are cheaper: all of those and many more concerns were reflected in these discussions.”