The script Wednesday was acquainted, one which Sen. Richard Blumenthal has reliably adopted over his lengthy profession on the political stage. Standing with AARP allies, he skewered pharmaceutical corporations and demanded that Congress act to decrease Medicare drug prices.
“There’s nothing extra vital to seniors, there’s nothing extra vital to American customers, than decreasing prescription drug costs and stopping the astronomical rise in prices of well being care,” mentioned Blumenthal, standing outdoors his workplace throughout from the Outdated State Home in downtown Hartford.
His place is unchanged from his first days within the Senate. He warned in 2011 that spending on pharmaceuticals was on monitor to double within the subsequent decade. Medicare spending on medication really would triple.
An unintended consequence of Blumenthal’s constant advocacy for Congress to permit Medicare to barter drug costs is that it underscores nothing has occurred on the difficulty because the Democrat’s election to the U.S. Senate practically a dozen years in the past.
It raises a query: At what level does advocacy with out outcomes grow to be a legal responsibility?
“This battle is value having,” Blumenthal replied. “As I mentioned firstly, nothing is extra vital to Individuals than well being and inexpensive drugs. I can’t promise we’re going to win the battle. However I can promise and pledge that we’re gonna battle as lengthy and onerous as crucial.”
The query has a particular relevance for the 76-year-old Blumenthal as he seeks reelection to a 3rd time period in an particularly unsettled time for incumbents.
A Gallup ballot finds that 76% of Individuals disapprove how the Congress does its job, which is hardly new. However a Quinnipiac College ballot final week confirmed Blumenthal barely above water in his approval score, unfamiliar territory for the state’s senior senator.
Forty-five p.c authorized of Blumenthal’s efficiency, whereas 43% disapproved.
It was the worst displaying within the historical past of Quinnipiac’s polling for the senator, who has commanded unequalled media consideration for greater than three many years as a crusading shopper advocate, first as legal professional normal and now as a senator.
“Polls rise and fall. My focus is on preventing for Connecticut and dealing as onerous as I can,” mentioned Blumenthal, who waved off additional questions on his approval score. “That’s actually all I’m going to say.”
Quinnipiac requested no horse-race questions matching Blumenthal in opposition to Themis Klarides, Peter Lumaj or Leora Levy, the trio competing for the GOP nomination in a major. An Emerson School ballot performed for WTNH confirmed Blumenthal with leads of 10 factors over Klarides and 16 factors over Lumaj and Levy.
Republicans haven’t gained a Connecticut contest for the U.S. Senate since 1982 or the U.S. Home since 2006.
Democrats stay assured that Blumenthal will retain his seat, however many privately concede that the Quinnipiac ballot and nationwide surveys are harbingers of a restive citizens, indicators that prime identify recognition and different perks of incumbency are not any assure of what sometimes has been a simple path.
With Senate guidelines requiring a brilliant majority to proceed on most debates, the evenly divided Senate has been a graveyard for the scores of payments handed by the Democratic majority within the Home of Representatives, together with measures favored by Blumenthal on drug pricing.
The Pentagon and the Veterans Administration negotiate drug costs, as do non-public well being insurers. VA sufferers pay about 50% much less for brand-name medication and 70% much less for generics than these beneath Medicare, Blumenthal mentioned.
However the politically highly effective Large Pharma trade succeeded in stopping Medicare from exercising its a lot bigger buying energy by explicitly banning it from negotiating on value because the introduction of Medicare drug protection in 2006.
“I’m not condemning non-public enterprise. I consider in capitalism. However there are some areas the place capitalism requires negotiation,” Blumenthal mentioned. “The essence of a free capitalist economic system is that two sides negotiate the costs. To ban negotiation is essentially un-American.”
Novlette Williams, 68, of West Hartford was one of many half-dozen AARP volunteers becoming a member of Blumenthal. She mentioned she as soon as refused a prescription for her congestive coronary heart failure that was going to value $500.
“And after they advised me I needed to pay that cash, I walked out,” she mentioned. “I advised the pharmacist, ‘Nicely, you already know what, I’ll simply go house and die.’ As a result of I couldn’t afford it.”
She finally obtained the prescription after the workplace of U.S. Rep. John B. Larson and her physician helped discover coupons that introduced down the associated fee.
Anna Doroghazi, a coverage director for AARP, mentioned Medicare recipients shouldn’t should depend on such intervention to afford life-saving prescriptions.
The AARP volunteers mentioned they weren’t discouraged by the lengthy battle to permit Medicare to barter drug costs.
Barbara Munck, 69, of North Haven famous the various coverage advances, equivalent to Title IX of the Training Amendments of 1972, that prohibited gender discrimination in any program that receives federal funding. It opened a brand new period of alternative for women and girls, significantly in athletics.
“You need to hold that dialog going,” Williams mentioned.
Blumenthal mentioned Wednesday that Democrats hope to make use of the budget-reconciliation course of to finish the ban on Medicare negotiating drug costs. Like a price range decision, a reconciliation invoice can’t be filibustered and requires solely a easy majority for passage, not the 60 votes.
Conscious of the lengthy historical past of futility, the senator made no guarantees.
“I’m not minimizing the difficulties. I’m not saying it’s a slam dunk. Simply the other — it’s an uphill battle,” Blumenthal mentioned. “However we want the American individuals to know we’re preventing it, as a result of their consciousness will likely be important help for this as we transfer ahead.”
The talks concerning the reconciliation invoice are ongoing, he mentioned.
