20-Jan-10 3:00 PM CST

Brown's Win in Massachusetts Senate Race Causes Worry about Health Care Bill

In an upset for Democrats, Republican candidate Scott Brown won the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat today in a close election, robbing Senate Democrats the 60th vote it needs to ensure passage of the health care reform bill.

Brown won the Massachusetts seat over favored Democrat Martha Coakley by 52 percent of the vote. The win comes at a time when Democrats are struggling to merge the House and Senate versions into one bill before the 2010 election season builds momentum.

Though deferring on some key controversial issues like abortion coverage and a public health option, in the area of pharmacy, both versions of the health care reform bill are very similar. Both bills call for better coverage of prescription drugs, expansion of the biotech drug market, the elimination of the Medicare coverage D “doughnut hole,” and financial incentives to improve medication therapy management (MTM) for patients who take multiple prescriptions.

The American Pharmacists Association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, and the American Medical Association have all made statements on both versions of the healthcare reform bill.

Among other things, the APhA supports both bills’ efforts to eliminate the Medicare Part D coverage gap, but they recommend adding language in the bill that calls for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to consider the financial impact the current provisions would have on pharmacists and pharmacies. The APhA also supports the provisions in the bills for a MTM grant program and for financial incentives that would improve the current Medicare Part D MTM programs. A full statement of the APhA’s stance on the healthcare reform bills is available on its web site.

PhRMA strongly supports provisions to eliminate the Medicare D coverage gap. In fact, it negotiated a deal with the White House to contribute $80 billion to help cover Medicare prescription drug costs until the part D coverage gap is eliminated. PhRMA President and CEO Bill Tauzin is also a strong supporter of provisions in both bills that would increase funding and expand the biotech drug market. Tauzin has a personal interest in the development of biotechs as biosimilar treatments saved him from cancer.

“It’s the future of medicine,” he said in an interview on CNBC last year. “If we don’t have a system that encourages it…we’re going to lose something extraordinarily valuable.”

Though the AMA believes that both bills make tremendous strides towards increasing access to high-quality care while reducing healthcare costs, it has released letters and statements over concerns about Medicare. The AMA has called for the elimination of the Medicare sustainable growth rate and any provisions in the bill that would give power to an independent commission such as the Independent Payment Advisory Board to mandate payment cuts for physicians.

Full statements on the APhA, PhRMA and the AMA’s positions on health care reform are available on their respective web sites.

President Obama has urged Democrats in Congress to refrain from trying to jam through a healthcare reform bill and to wait until Senator elect Brown is sworn in before moving forward. The President called Brown upon news of his victory to congratulate him.