The Voluntary State Discount Prescription Drug Plan Act of 2011

Floor Speech

* Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce, along with my colleague, Representative Chellie Pingree, the Voluntary State Discount Prescription Drug Plan Act of 2011--a completely voluntary, commonsense way to offer prescription drugs at affordable prices to millions of Americans currently struggling without prescription drug coverage.

* With the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, millions of uninsured Americans will gain access to health insurance and prescription drug coverage. However, the expansion of coverage won't happen until 2014.

* In the meantime, high prescription drug costs will continue to be a burden for millions of Americans. This legislation would enable states, at their option, to create state discount prescription drug plans that extend Medicaid-negotiated rebates to citizens up to 300 percent of the poverty line and thereby provide discounts of roughly 40 percent to 50 million uninsured Americans--all at their local pharmacies. Just like HMOs and insurance plans in the private sector, participating states would simply leverage their purchasing power to secure better prices on behalf of their citizens. In that regard, our bill would explicitly authorize recent prescription drug affordability initiatives in states like Maryland, Maine, and Vermont by removing barriers that have to date not been embraced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

* In 2005, my home state of Maryland passed a state discount prescription drug plan law with the near unanimous support of our General Assembly and our then Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich. Unfortunately, that plan was subsequently blocked by the Bush Administration for reasons that have never been credibly explained. As a result, the broad bipartisan will of our state has been thwarted and hundreds of thousands of Marylanders have been deprived of needed access to affordable prescription drugs. In fact, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data conducted by Families USA and the Center for Policy Alternatives, an estimated half million Marylanders would become eligible for immediate prescription drug price relief under this legislation.

* Since these plans are created at the state level, we don't believe states should have to ask the federal government's permission in order to establish them. For that reason, our legislation makes clear that Maryland--and any other state that chooses--can set up a state discount prescription drug plan without petitioning CMS for a Section 1115 waiver. Additionally, since these plans rely on government purchasing power rather than government outlays to produce price discounts, we remove CMS's somewhat contrived requirement that states expend some undefined amount of their own money as part of these plans. Beyond modest administrative costs, it simply isn't necessary.

* Mr. Speaker, this legislation represents a significant opportunity to empower states to deliver prescription drug affordability to millions of our citizens who don't currently have it. I hope Congress seizes this opportunity, and I invite my colleagues' support.

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