[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 154 (Thursday, November 4, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H11552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PRESCRIPTION DRUG BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, tonight I would like to talk about an 
issue that is becoming increasingly of concern to the American 
citizens, and that is the high prices that Americans in general and 
seniors in particular are being required to pay for prescription drugs.
  A number of stories have appeared recently. A number of national news 
publications, MSNBC, the New York Times, a number of stories, the 
Washington Post, a Minneapolis paper recently did stories about what is 
happening in America relative to the high cost of prescription drugs.
  Now, it has a tremendous impact on all Americans, but of particularly 
high impact on senior citizens where many of the people in my district, 
and I suspect this is not unusual to my district, it happens all over 
the country, seniors are paying two, three, four, in fact I talked to 
one couple that is paying over $1,000 a month for prescription drugs. 
It is a serious problem. It is here now. Every one has an opinion.
  But let me just talk about what I think is one part of the problem 
that we could do something very serious about solving very quickly.
  But before I do, I would like to read excerpts from a letter to the 
community from George Halvorson. George Halvorson is the president and 
CEO of HealthPartners in Minneapolis.
  Let me just read, ``The cost of prescription drugs varies to an 
amazing degree between countries.
  ``If you have a stomach ulcer and your doctor says, `you need to be 
on Prilosec,' you would probably pay about $99.95 for a 30-day supply 
in the Twin Cities. But if you were vacationing in Canada and decided 
to fill your prescription there, you would pay only $50.88.
  ``Or, even better, if you were looking for a little warmer weather 
south of the border in Mexico, the same 30-day supply would cost you 
only $17.50.
  ``That's for the same dose, made by the same manufacturer.
  ``If we could get only half the price break that Canadians get, our 
plan alone'', he is talking about one HMO in Minnesota, he says, ``our 
plan alone could have saved our members nearly $35 million last year.''
  Imagine what we are talking about throughout the entire country. He 
goes on to say, ``When the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) was 
passed by Congress to allow free trade between us and our neighboring 
countries, HealthPartners decided to follow the lead of in Minnesota 
Senior Federation and buy drugs in Canada at Canadian prices. We were 
disappointed to learn of the rules and processes that kept us from 
succeeding. There is no free trade in prescription drugs. We need to do 
something about this.''
  Well, I tell Mr. Halvorson, we intend to do something about it. But 
before we do something, one has got to understand what the problem is. 
It all comes down to section 381 of U.S. Code, Title XXI, section 381.
  Let me just read for my colleagues what this section basically says. 
``The Secretary of Treasury shall deliver to the Secretary of Health 
and Human Services, upon his request, samples of food, drugs, devices, 
and cosmetics which are being imported or offered for import into the 
United States.'' The operative expression is ``giving notice thereof to 
the owner or cosignee''.
  It goes on to basically say that people can bring drugs into the 
country as long as they are legal drugs and they have a prescription. 
But if there is a challenge to them, the burden of proof falls upon the 
FDA.
  But, unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, that is not what is happening. What 
is happening today is, when seniors try to bring drugs, and 
particularly if they do it through mail order, back into the United 
States, the FDA puts the burden of proof on the seniors to prove that 
they are legal drugs and were manufactured in an FDA-approved facility.
  What I am going to be doing here in the next day or two is 
introducing legislation to clarify that Americans will be able, going 
through their local pharmacy, to order drugs over the Internet or by 
web or through faxes with correspondent pharmacies in Canada or in 
Mexico as long as they are legal drugs produced in an FDA-approved 
facility to allow them to do that.
  We are talking about savings for some seniors of $300 or $400 per 
month. Now, that may not seem like much to some of the folks in this 
room, but let me tell my colleagues, if one is living on a fixed income 
of $10,000, we are beginning to talk real money.
  It is time for us to say loudly and clearly that we will not allow 
the FDA to stand between our consumers and our seniors in particular. 
We will not allow the FDA to stand between our consumers and lower drug 
prices.
  It is a simple bill. I would hope that my colleagues would contact my 
office because we want to make this a broad-based bipartisan coalition 
to support this bill. We hope to introduce it in the next day or two. 
Please take a look at this legislation. We would like to have my 
colleagues join us on it.

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