Senator Merkley

Senator Merkley Wants to Hear Your Stories
The skyrocketing cost of health care has become an enormous financial burden for millions of American families. As the debate in Congress heats up about how to fix the broken health care system, it's important that the voices of Oregonians are heard.This week, Senator Merkley unveiled a new feature on his website called, "Oregon Stories," where Oregonians can share their stories about what's working in our system and what isn't.Senator Merkley will regularly feature a story submitted by an Oregonian on his website. In the future, Senator Merkley will feature stories on a wide variety of subjects of importance to Oregonians. If you've got a story that you'd like to tell, visit the Oregon Stories page on the website and submit your story today.Watch the videoShare your health care story.
Lowering Medicare Prescription Drug Prices
Last week, Senator Merkley wrote a letter urging his colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee to reform the Medicare Prescription Drug program to help bring down costs for seniors and for our country. Twenty-two senators signed on to support Senator Merkley's call to action to address the exorbitant costs of prescription medication. The following are several options that Senator Merkley believes we could pursue to reduce costs:
Allow Medicare to negotiate Part D prices;
Create a Medicare-administered Part D plan that would compete against existing private plans; and
Require pharmaceutical companies to pay rebates to Medicare if Medicare was not given the authority to negotiate prices directly which could save our country billions of dollars.Our seniors should never have to pick and choose what medicines they can afford. That's why it's important that Congress reforms the Medicare Part D program to lower the sky-high cost of prescription drugs as part of the effort to fix our broken health care system