Minnesota U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Al Franken on Wednesday said the federal government should negotiate with drug companies to lour seniors' drug prices, license re-importation of prescription medications from other countries and ban mass-market drug advertising, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. Franken aforementioned these proposals, which have been suggested by other candidates and in former years, could move forward if sufficiency Democrats are in the Senate side by side year (Stassen-Berger, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 7/30).
Franken said his opponent -- Sen. Norm Coleman (R) -- is participating in "a massive betrayal of Minnesota seniors" by supporting a provision in the Medicare Part D programme that prohibits the federal government from negotiating with drug companies to depress prices (Doyle, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 7/30). A late U.S. House oversight commission report ground that Medicare insurers would have decreased spending on the top 100 drugs by $3.7 1000000000 had Medicare been able pay the same prices negotiated by Medicaid in 2006 and 2007 (St. Paul Pioneer Press, 7/30).
Franken said Coleman was "rewarded handsomely" by the pharmaceutical and health products industry for his support of the Medicare dose benefit. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the diligence contributed $204,000 during this election cycle to Coleman's run.
Franken too advocated a ban on drug publicizing to consumers because such commercials "drum up pharmaceutic sales by encouraging patients to specifically request medication that their medical providers might otherwise not have prescribed."
Coleman Reaction
Coleman representative Mark Drake noted that the senator was one of six Senate Republicans who joined Democrats and voted to take up a vizor last year that would have allowed Medicare to negotiate do drugs prices. Drake added that Coleman would support government negotiation to lower prices if the measure guaranteed seniors would not be denied approach to needed medications (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 7/30). Drake added that Coleman would support authorizing drug re-importation from other countries if it did not bound access to common prescription drugs and the process was deemed safe (St. Paul Pioneer Press, 7/30).
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