House OKs bill on prescription drug prices

WASHINGTON — The House approved a change to the Medicare Prescription Drug plan Friday that would require the government to negotiate for lower drug prices. It is the second Democrat agenda item to pass that President Bush has said he will veto.

Bush says he will veto a bill that lifts a federal ban on stem cell research, and White House spokesman Tony Snow said Friday Bush also will veto the bill changing Medicare's Prescription Drug Plan.

Snow said that Congressional Budget Office and the Department of Health and Human Services actuaries say the bill would have little or no effect on federal spending and provides no substantial savings to either the government or Medicare beneficiaries.

"We have a Medicare prescription drug reform that has been saving people significant amounts of money; it is effective," he said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and other Republicans argue that putting the government in the position of trying to get lower prescription prices would actually hurt the process and not save seniors any money in the long run.

Leavitt, former Utah governor, sent a letter to the House opposing the proposal, saying government involvement would "undermine the substantial savings and success of the drug benefit.

"It could directly harm Medicare's more than 40 million beneficiaries through limited access to drugs, limited convenience and access to local pharmacies, and an increase in drug costs," Leavitt wrote to the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee.

The bill is part of the Democrats' "first 100 hours" agenda. Several of the identified agenda items passed earlier this week. The Medicare bill passed 255-170, with Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, voting for the bill and Reps. Rob Bishop and Chris Cannon, both R-Utah, voting against it, following the split along party lines that has prevailed with the other issues on the 100-hour list.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the passage "a resounding victory for American's seniors over the special interests."

"The president's flawed prescription drug plan is benefiting drug companies more than America's seniors and people with disabilities," Pelosi said.

Democrats say the limit placed on the government in the 2003 law, restricting its ability to negotiate with drug companies for lower drug prices only helped pharmaceutical companies and not seniors using the drugs.

The new version will require the government to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices and requires the HHS secretary to report to Congress every six months.