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With prices for prescription drugs under Medicare Part D rising sharply – Senate Republicans have blocked a bill that could lower those prices. Jesse Russell reports:

Senate Democrats failed in garnering the 60 votes needed to bring to a vote a bill that would have allowed the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices. Under the current Medicare Part D plan private insurers handle the negotiations with drug makers – Democrats believe the government influence companies to lower prices and cut costs for senior citizens. Republicans believe drug prices should be left up to the private sector and not put in the hands of the secretary of Health and Human Services. As Republicans were blocking the bill a new report was released that drug prices under the Bush Administration’s Medicare Part D increased by 9.2 percent – three times the increase in this year’s Social Security cost-of-living adjustment and four times as fast as the rate of inflation. The report was filed by the organization Families USA using data provided by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.