Michaud introduces federal legislation mirroring Maine Rx

By Rhiannon Varmette

WASHINGTON--Rep. Mike Michaud introduced his first substantial piece of legislation today - a bill modeled after a Maine law that would authorize the federal government to negotiate for lower medication prices for people without health insurance

Michaud said that his bill, America Rx, would require the Health and Human Services Department to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower prescription prices for Americans who do not have health insurance or do not have prescription drug coverage in their insurance plan.

"Drug prices continue to spiral upward, forcing millions of Americans to choose between medicine and food, medicine and rent, medicine and heat," Michaud said.

He said that his bill would not cost taxpayers money and probably would even mean money for the drug industry by opening up the prescription drug market to more people.

"Nationwide, there will be a lot of support for this legislation," Michaud said. "The question is whether members of Congress will take it seriously."

Rep. Tom Allen, a co-sponsor of America Rx, was also at the press conference to present the legislation with Michaud. There are 29 co-sponsors so far.

As a state senator, Michaud co-sponsored Maine Rx, which required the Maine Department of Human Services to negotiate prices with the drug producers, and threatened to punish those companies that did not negotiate with losing all or their Medicaid customers.

Maine Rx passed overwhelmingly in the state House and unanimously in the Senate but has been held up in the courts after the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry's lobbying group, challenged the legislation. The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case s still reviewing the case. Michaud's bill does not include the provisions in the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Maine law that have been challenged.

Michaud said he expects that America Rx would receive public and political support from both sides of the aisle, as the Maine Rx legislation did.

"A lot of people thought it was a crazy idea," Michaud said. "But in a small state like Maine we were willing to try new ideas, to build bipartisan coalitions, to offer fresh approaches to very complex ideas."

Under America Rx, pharmaceutical companies that decline to negotiate would lose their tax deduction for marketing and advertising.

"It's a powerful incentive" for the pharmaceutical companies to do what they have already done with other countries, Allen said.

Michaud said that he hopes the legislation will pass and added that if it does, it would be unlikely to be held up by litigation, as Maine's law has been.

Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.