DRUG COSTS I: Dems. Hope for a Unified Plan by Next Week
Despite "substantive difficulties" and "lingering political differences" within the party, House and Senate Democrats hope to unveil a unified plan to provide outpatient prescription drug coverage for Medicare patients in time for a White House event next week, CongressDaily reports. While Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) said that a consolidated proposal "would be less confusing for the public" and "make it clear that it's the Republicans denying them drug coverage," overcoming divides within the Democratic ranks may be difficult. The conservative House Blue Dog Coalition, for example, opposes legislation that would place controls on drug prices, a position supported in a proposal sponsored by Reps. Thomas Allen (D-Maine) and Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.). In the Senate, Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) are dueling with Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) over their plan to install an independent Medicare board to make important decisions about drug benefits, a notion that Rockefeller "unshakably" opposes. Rockefeller also has concerns about whether the new benefit would be administered by one pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) or multiple PBMs. According to Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Democrats eventually hope to overcome the discord and produce a "joint House-Senate plan the president can support," much as the party did two years ago with the patients' bill of rights (Rovner, 5/3).
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