heinrich_canada

SUBJECT LINE: Sen. Heinrich’s vote last night against lower drug prices

BODY:

[NAMES]

My name is Ken Baumann. I live in Santa Fe, and I’m a constituent of Senator Heinrich’s. I also suffer from Crohn’s Disease.

Last night, Senator Heinrich voted to reject an amendment proposed by Senator Sanders that would have allowed prescription drugs to be imported from Canada, in order to provide cheaper drugs to patients.

The amendment had enough Republican support to pass, but twelve Democrats rejected the amendment. Senator Heinrich was one of them. He has received $150,500 in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry since 2011.

Andrea J Mares, his staffer who handles legislative issues, explained his vote by saying that he was concerned about not being able to assess the safety of drugs being imported from Canada. I'm not aware of any sort of drug-safety crisis in Canada, so I find this explanation spurious.

I believe that this vote deserves media attention, and hope that my account below can provide key details. More info, including direct quotes, below:

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I called Heinrich’s D.C. office (202-224-5521) this morning. I asked for the staffer who handles healthcare legislation, and said that I had a question about Heinrich’s vote last night to reject the Sanders amendment to the budget resolution regarding the ACA. I was put on hold for a moment, then the staffer responded, “I want to let you know that Senator Heinrich does support the ACA.” I asked again for the healthcare staffer, then was transferred to Andrea J. Mares.

I asked Andrea, “Why did Senator Heinrich vote last night to reject the Sanders amendment that would have allowed for importing cheaper prescription drugs from Canada? Why, when the amendment had enough Republican support to pass?”

Andrea put me on hold for 13 minutes, then returned only to ask to call me back with a response within 30 minutes. She called back in 45 minutes, and said, “Senator Heinrich is supportive of affordable healthcare coverage. The 2013 Drug Supply Chain Security Act provides a system to track drugs from their points of sale to pharmacies, which the FDA cannot do. The Sanders amendment couldn’t guarantee safety protections on drugs reimported from Canada. The Senator will be requesting a vote on another amendment on reconciliation to lower prescription drug prices.”

On whether or not the $150,500 affected his vote to reject the Sanders amendment, Andrea said, “Not that I know of. He also supported a separate Sanders amendment to lower prescription drug prices.”

Andrea asked for any other concerns I’d like to pass to the Senator. I told her, “I have friends with Crohn’s Disease and other chronic illnesses in Canada, and they are very confident in the safety of the drugs they receive. As a person who takes egregiously expensive ($2,400 per dose) medication to stay healthy, I find it hard to take seriously the claim that Senator Heinrich rejected the amendment over a safety concern instead of over his being beholden to the American pharmaceutical companies that have donated over $150,000 to his campaigns.”

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Please let me know if you have any other questions, and thank you so much for your time and attention.

Yours,
Ken

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Sources:
Amendment roll call: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=1&vote=00020 (including Republican support)

Campaign contributions: https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=2016&cid=N00029835&type=I

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Santa Fe New Mexican:
Steve Terrell: sterrell@sfnewmexican.com
Rebecca Moss: rmoss@sfnewmexican.com
Andrew Oxford: aoxford@sfnewmexican.com

Santa Fe Reporter:
Steven Hsieh: steven@sfreporter.com
Elizabeth Miller: elizabeth@sfreporter.com
Julie Ann Grimm: editor@sfreporter.com

ABQ Journal:
Michael Coleman: mcoleman@abqjournal.com
Stephen Williams: swilliams@abqjournal.com
Dan Boyd: dboyd@abqjournal.com
Deborah Baker: dbaker@abqjournal.com