Prescription Drugs
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS -- (Senate - January 18, 2007)
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, let me mention one other subject while I am up, and that has to do with the comments of the distinguished Senator from Oregon about Medicare prescription drugs and the success of the Part D Medicare prescription drug program. I don't know of many governmental programs that have met with more success than this prescription drug program, in terms of the acceptance of America's seniors and the way it has allowed them to get access to prescription drugs at a reasonable cost that they were never able to access before. But I do have grave concerns about those who would attempt to basically interfere with that successful program by imposing Federal controls on the price for which these pharmaceuticals may be charged under the guise of some negotiation. When the Federal Government negotiates with a private entity, there is no real negotiation; it is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition.
I pose as exhibit A to support that the current VA health care system, which is held out as a model by which this kind of negotiation could go forward. The fact is, the VA system is pointed to as a model by which this Government negotiation could occur, and today that system does not supply nearly the variety of pharmaceuticals to its beneficiaries the Medicare system does.
I have read in various places that the number ranges from 19 percent--I have heard as high as 30 percent--of the drugs that are available to Medicare beneficiaries are available to veterans under the VA system because of this feature. So when you impose price controls, which is what is being advocated by those who want to change the current successful system of Medicare prescription drugs, basically, what we are going to find is a rationing effect. I would think that would be the last thing any of us would want to do--to ration the prescription drugs available to our seniors under the enormously successful Medicare Part D reform we passed in 2003.
I yield the floor.
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