[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 29, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H9183-H9184]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                H.R. 4646, THE PRESCRIPTION FAIRNESS ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Burr of North Carolina). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Turner) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TURNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California 
(Mrs. Capps) for her remarks regarding the legislation that she and 61 
other Members of the House have joined in to try to address this very 
serious problem that faces many of our senior citizens: The high cost 
of prescription drugs.
  The Committee on Government Reform and Oversight did a study at my 
request, in my district, in response to the many senior citizens who 
have contacted me telling me that they have noticed that it is becoming 
an increasing problem for them to pay for the high cost of prescription 
medication. One of these ladies is a constituent of mine in Orange, 
Texas. Her name is Frances Daley. I had the opportunity to visit with 
her in my district, when I was going around talking about H.R. 4646, 
the Prescription Fairness Act, that 62 of us in the House have 
introduced.
  Ms. Daley is blind. She takes nine prescription medications. She 
spends an average of $450 a month on those nine medications. She lives 
on a meager Social Security check, $650 a month. With only $110 left 
after trying to pay for these prescription drugs, I asked Ms. Daley, 
``How do you do it?'' And she leaned over to me, in a proud sort of 
way, and said, ``I just take half my medication.''
  No senior citizen should be faced with the choice of taking only half 
of their medications. I even talked to senior citizens who quietly told 
me that they sometimes have to choose between buying food and buying 
medication.
  While we have been very proud of the fact that Medicare has provided 
some protection for our senior citizens' health care, all the while we 
have failed to note that slowly prescription drug prices have been 
rising and rising and rising, to the point where many of our seniors 
can no longer pay for their prescription medications.
  At my request and the request of several other members of our 
Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, the staff put together a 
study. We went out and we surveyed pharmacies in our own districts, 
just to find out what the price differential was between what our 
senior citizens are paying for drugs and what the big drug 
manufacturers' most favored customers are paying for those same drugs.
  The results of that study are shown on this chart to my right. What 
we determined was that there are 10 drugs that are commonly prescribed 
for senior citizens. The 10 most commonly prescribed drugs are shown in 
the left-hand column. The name of the manufacturer is shown in the next 
column. The use of that drug is shown in the next column.
  And in this column we see the prices that are paid by the big drug 
manufacturers' most favored customers. By ``favored customers'' we are 
talking about the big HMOs, the big hospital chains, and even the 
Federal Government. Those are the favored customers of the big drug 
manufacturers.
  For Ticlid, the first example on the chart, which is used as a stroke 
medication, the most favored customers pay $33.57 to the big drug 
manufacturers for a typical prescription; about a month's supply of 
Ticlid. The retail price paid in the Second Congressional District of 
Texas, the average retail price, is $117.95. That is what the senior 
citizens pays when they walk into their local pharmacy.
  The price differential is shown in the last column. For Ticlid, 
senior citizens in the Second Congressional District, and in most 
districts in this country, are paying over twice, 251 percent more for 
Ticlid than the most favored customers of the big drug manufacturers.
  We took all 10, we averaged them, and as we can see in the bottom 
right-hand corner, there is over twice a difference between what senior 
citizens are paying in their local retail pharmacies and what the big 
drug companies are charging their most favored customers.
  This is not right. This kind of price discrimination is placing the 
burden of paying the highest prices for prescription drugs in this 
country on the segment of our population that is least able to pay: our 
senior citizens who walk into their local pharmacy without insurance.

[[Page H9184]]

  Our study showed many other examples of price discrimination. One 
drug, Synthorid, a hormone treatment, had a price difference of 1350 
percent. The most favored customers were paying $1.78 for the 
prescription, while our senior citizens in their local pharmacies are 
paying $25.86.
  Some would say, well, maybe the local pharmacies are getting rich. 
The truth is the markup on drugs at a local pharmacy is very small. Our 
study indicated that it ranged anywhere from a 1 percent markup to a 
high of 19 percent. So it is not our local pharmacies that are 
responsible for this problem. It goes back to the big drug 
manufacturers and their discriminatory pricing practices. It is wrong, 
and we need to do something about it.
  H.R. 4646 addresses this problem by allowing our local pharmacies to 
buy directly from the Federal Government at these lower prices and then 
resale, resale to our senior citizens at much lower prices. We think 
this is a common sense solution, will cost the government nothing, but 
it should be done for folks like Ms. Daley in Orange, Texas. The big 
drug companies will not like it, but for Ms. Daley it is worth the 
fight.

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