DES MOINES--Governor Dean issued the following statement today:
"In its unseemly rush to go home for Thanksgiving, the Senate abandoned America's seniors to the tender mercies of the drug industry and HMOs. Congress claims they’ve passed a prescription drug benefit -- but for America’s seniors, this bill is a turkey and it represents everything wrong with Washington today.
"This bill will pay for less than a quarter of our seniors' prescription drug costs. It actually prohibits the government from negotiating lower drug prices from the drug industry. It takes billions away from middle-class seniors and gives them away as HMO subsidies. It keeps seniors from importing safe, affordable medicines from Canada. It guarantees drug prices stay high, eliminates employer-based coverage for millions of Americans, and drives millions more out of traditional Medicare into untested, unreliable private plans.
We can fix this terrible mess. We can leverage lower drug prices out of drug companies, encourage generic drug use and secure generous, guaranteed and affordable drug coverage -- all in traditional Medicare. In Vermont we actually provided a prescription drug benefit and we went after the drug industry and drug prices, and we can do it again for America because the people not the special interests run this campaign. This bill had a near-death experience in the House. It should have died there. Instead of delivering a real Medicare drug benefit, Congress found a way to protect the drug industry’s prices and HMO industry's profit margins.We can't afford to play this kind of cynical politics with our country's health any longer.
Until we change Washington and challenge its entrenched special interests, America's seniors will continue to get the short end of the stick."http://www.blogforamerica.com/
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