Reply #14: That was my thought too.

[karynnj]

The letter is posted on Blue Mass, but I think the issue is the same one discussed in the Finance committee when they were working on the health care bill. Bill Nelson had an amendment which would give dual eligible Medicare recipients (ie they qualify for Medicaid too) the lower cost negotiated by Medicaid - rather than the higher Medicare cost. The amendment failed when Menendez and Carper voted with the Republicans. Here's a link on that - http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/09/24/senators-reject-measure-to-cut-medicare-drug-prices/


At the time, Kerry argued strongly in favor of - I think adding on as a cosponsor. The Republicans called the Democrats out saying the billions saved this way were paid by someone - and were answered that it would be from the drug companies. (Caveat this is from memory and this is not defined enough to be sure it is exactly the same thing.

It is good if this is part of the solution.