Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, examines prescription drug reimportation, SCHIP funding and health issues for soldiers in the Iraq war in this week's "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork and CQ." Carey notes that a subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee last week held a hearing on legislation that would allow consumers, pharmacies and wholesalers to purchase FDA-approved medications made at FDA-inspected facilities in foreign countries. In addition, the bill calls for establishing a framework for reimportation, including that FDA regulate prescription drugs that are reimported into the U.S. During the hearing, Randall Lutter, FDA acting deputy commissioner for policy, said FDA does not have the resources to perform such regulation, noting that the agency currently is busy keeping up with approval of generic drugs. Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) expressed frustration with FDA's stance on the legislation, Carey says. Carey also discusses an announcement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that the House fiscal year 2008 budget resolution will include a reserve fund that would cover children eligible for SCHIP. Pelosi did not specify the amount of the reserve fund. At the same time, Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has said he would like to include $50 billion over five years for the program in the Senate's FY 2008 budget resolution. In other SCHIP news, Carey notes that the FY 2007 supplemental spending bill includes about $750 million for states with SCHIP budget shortfalls. Finally, Carey addresses recent issues with medical care for military members returning from the war in Iraq. During five congressional hearings last week, lawmakers criticized treatment delays, a staffing shortage and failure of officials to correct problems promptly. President Bush last week created a presidential commission to evaluate the military health system, and lawmakers are considering adding $1.1 billion to the supplemental bill for post-traumatic stress counseling, brain injury care and research, amputee and burn care, and other programs (Carey, "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork and CQ," 3/12).

The complete audio version of "Health on the Hill," transcript and resources for further research are available online at kaisernetwork.

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