Perspective               

Group Promoting GOP Rx Plan

Don Young, president of the Health Insurance Association of America has said that private insurance companies do not offer a realistic path to providing a drug benefit to older and disabled Americans. Yet the United Seniors Association, a pharmaceutical industry-funded lobbying organization, has begun an ad campaign supporting Republican-backed legislation that relies on private insurers to offer people with Medicare prescription coverage in the individual market.

A group of labor unions and seniors' organizations that believes the campaign is misleading, has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, asking the agency to investigate the ads. In addition, Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) have sent a letter to members of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which is funding the ads, asking them to withdraw their support and devote those funds instead to lowering the price of prescription drugs.

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