Issue Position: Medicare

Issue Position

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2005, Congressman Lynch convened 16 separate Medicare forums across the 9th Congressional District to ensure that seniors had the information they needed to decide which plan within the new Medicare Part D program would work best for them. Although Congressman Lynch opposed the way in which the program was enacted, he believed that it was his responsibility to ensure that the seniors of the 9th Congressional District were as fully informed as possible.

One of the reasons that Congressman Lynch voted against the original Medicare Prescription Drug legislation was that it explicitly forbade the Medicare program from negotiating directly with drug companies to get the best price for seniors' prescriptions. This drug law deliberately protects pharmaceutical profits by diluting purchasing power and prohibiting the government from getting the best deal for beneficiaries and taxpayers. Quite simply, the Republican Congress put profits for the drug companies ahead of Medicare beneficiaries. For this reason, Congressman Lynch introduced the Prescription Drug Affordability Act which would require Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for lower drug prices and allow the reimportation of safe prescription drugs through Canada in order to lower costs. Additionally, Congressman Lynch has supported efforts that would eliminate the doughnut hole that subjects Medicare recipients to $3,000 in out-of-pocket costs for life-saving drugs.

Source