Letters to Congress

• Letter to the Senate urging an override of the President's veto of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (H.R. 6331), 7/16/08
• Letter to the Senate supporting the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (H.R. 6331), 7/7/08
• Letter to the Senate supporting a motion to proceed to consider the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (S. 3101), 6/12/08
• Letter to Senator Gordon Smith regarding his efforts to amend the Medicare Part D asset test, 6/6/08
• Letter to the Senate supporting the Save Medicare Act of 2008 (S.2785), 5/15/08
• Letter urging the Senate to support the Medicaid rules moratorium, 4/28/08
• Letter urging support for H.R. 5613, Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008, 4/22/08
• Letter to the Senate supporting temporary moratorium on pending Medicaid and SCHIP regulations (S. 2819), 4/16/08
• Letter to the House supporting temporary increase in federal share of Medicaid payments (H.R. 5268), 4/9/08
• Letter to the House supporting mental health parity, 3/27/08
• Letter to the House supporting H.R. 5613, which would suspend proposed changes in Medicaid regulations for one year, 3/17/08
• Letter to the full Senate opposing Grassley Medicaid amendment that would adversely affect children's healthcare, 3/13/08
• Letter to the House calling for an override of the Presidential veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, 1/22/08
• Letter to the House in support of the veto override on SCHIP, 10/15/07
• Letter to to Representatives Hodes and Castle supporting their Michelle's Law bill, 10/4/07
• Letter to the House supporting the SCHIP reauthorization/expansion bill, 9/25/07
• Letter to Representative Emanuel supporting the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act of 2007, 8/14/07
• Letter to House opposing the Kingston amendment, 8/2/07
• Letter to the Senate in support of the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (S.3), 4/13/07
• Letter to Representative Conyers supporting his United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676), 3/26/07
• Letter to the House of Representatives supporting negotiation of drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries, 1/9/07

NEA on Negotiating Prescription Drug Prices: Allow the Federal Government to Secure Bulk Discounts for Medicare Recipients

NEA supports legislation that would allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare recipients.

• Millions of seniors, many of them retired educators and education support professionals living on fixed incomes, face escalating medication costs.
  
  
• Too often, seniors must pay for medication at the expense of food or other necessities.
  
  
• This untenable situation is, in part, due to the inability of the federal government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, leaving individual Medicare beneficiaries with no leverage to secure discount drug prices.
  
  
• Pharmaceutical companies, like other industries, grant discounts in exchange for volume and market share. It stands to reason, therefore, that Medicare could get the best prices on prescription drugs by leveraging group purchasing power.
  
  
• Allowing negotiation with drug companies would let the Medicare program take advantage of the market power of 40 million beneficiaries. As a result, America's seniors would be able to purchase essential prescription medications at a fair price.
  
  
• According to the American Medical Association, other federal agencies, such as Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department, have been able to negotiate favorable rates on prescription drugs on behalf of their beneficiaries, resulting in very substantial cost savings.
  

 NEA supports this proposal.

I need more info:

• Issue Overview: Affordable Prescription Drugs

NEA on Affordable Prescription Drugs: Supports

NEA supports legislation that would allow American consumers to take advantage of the global marketplace to purchase affordable prescription drugs.

• Current federal law prohibits consumers from taking advantage of the global marketplace to purchase affordable prescription drugs.

• American consumers are charged the highest prices in the world for the same medicines that are available in other major industrialized nations at a fraction of the cost. A prescription drug that costs $1 in the United States costs only 62 cents in Canada, 65 cents in Germany, 69 cents in Great Britain, 55 cents in France and 52 cents in Italy.

• Millions of seniors and individuals with disabilities, many of them retired educators living on fixed incomes, face escalating medication costs and too often must pay for medication at the expense of food or other necessities.

• The Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act (S. 334/H.R. 700) would help address this unacceptable situation by allowing pharmacies, drug wholesalers and consumers to import FDA-approved medicines from Canada and other industrialized nations.

• Consumers would be permitted to purchase up to a 90-day supply of medicine for their personal use or the personal use of a family member.

• The bill would protect consumer safety by requiring frequent FDA inspections of importers and exporters and verification of the chain of custody of each prescription drug imported.

 NEA supports this proposal.

I need more info:

• Issue Overview: Affordable Prescription Drugs