Give Medicare authority to bargain for lower drug prices

To the Editor:

Older Americans need affordable drugs, and we expect our members of Congress to back efforts to bring prices down.

The U.S. House of Representatives did its part by passing legislation strongly supported by American Association of Retired Persons requiring Medicare to bargain for lower prices.

Now, drug companies are using false arguments and ham-handed tactics to stop that legislation in the U.S. Senate. In a recent letter, one drug company claims the proposal requiring Medicare to bargain allows the government "to set the price of drugs."

It does nothing of the sort.

As anyone who has gone back and forth dickering with a seller knows, bargaining means negotiation, not setting the price.

Medicare needs to harness the buying power of its 43 million beneficiaries to negotiate the best prices possible for us. The U.S. Senate can help make that happen by passing a bill to give Medicare the authority to bargain for lower drug prices.

Truman L. Struck