[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 46 (Wednesday, April 12, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H2186-H2187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HIGH COSTS OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BERRY. Madam Speaker, I rise once again to address the high costs 
of prescription drugs in this country, and the recently released 
Republican plan that will do absolutely nothing to help the people of 
this country, especially our senior citizens, who are struggling with 
these high prescription drug prices.
  The Republicans have finally released that the seniors in their 
districts and across this country are struggling with these high 
prescription drug prices. So they came up with a plan, a phony plan, 
one that does not guarantee our seniors affordable prescription drugs. 
It does provide a plan to protect the profits of the prescription drug 
manufacturers in this country. They say that the seniors will be able 
to buy private prescription drug plans. Do these private plans mean 
that seniors will be able to afford their medicines?
  Madam Speaker, there is nothing in their plan that does that. The GAO 
proposal creates a brand new bureaucracy, a very inefficient 
counterproductive system for providing and subsidizing a drug benefit. 
We know that we need to provide a drug benefit for our senior citizens, 
particularly those on Medicare.
  A recently released White House report shows that 43 percent of rural 
residents on Medicare have no prescription drug coverage. Those without 
coverage pay nearly twice as much out of pocket as anyone else. The 
report is just another justification that seniors need a good 
prescription drug benefit under Medicare. They need access to lower-
priced prescription drugs, like all the rest of the world has. 
Americans without a prescription drug benefit spend more for their 
medicine than anyone else in the world.
  The prescription drug manufacturers are now running ads under the 
guise of Citizens for Better Medicare. This is a front group for the 
manufacturers. This ad claims that if you allow a reasonably-priced 
prescription drug to be sold in this country at relatively the same 
price that it sold in other countries that you threaten the research 
and development, the fact is, in countries where they sell these 
products for half as much as they do in America, they are increasing 
their research and development faster than they are in the United 
States. This just simply does not make any sense.
  They say that to allow Americans to purchase prescription drugs at 
reasonable prices and at fair prices, like all the rest of the world 
has, that it would create a situation where our health care system 
would be in danger and that we would end up with a bad system. There is 
nothing to that.
  This is just an attempt to frighten the senior citizens to think that 
they may not have access at all to good medication. The fact is what 
the fright should be, what the fright is, the manufacturers are fearful 
that they will lose their exorbitant profits that they squeeze from the 
pockets of our senior citizens in this country every day.

[[Page H2187]]

 Their new ad claims that their intention is to import Canada's 
government controls.
  The truth is, Canada is now utilizing the purchasing power of the 
U.S. government. One way the Canadian government keeps brand name drug 
companies from price gauging is to see at what price drug companies 
sell their products in other countries.
  In Canada, the price cannot exceed the median price charged in other 
developing countries. Starting this year, the U.S. price Canada will 
use in the international comparisons is the U.S. Federal supply 
schedule price. We now have Canadians benefitting from the purchasing 
power of the United States Government. But Americans cannot benefit 
from that. This is an outrage that Canadians can benefit from U.S. 
Government discount that we refuse to give our own Medicare recipients.
  I have introduced legislation that would give U.S. seniors access to 
lower prescription drug prices that seniors in all other countries 
enjoy, the International Prescription Drug Parity Act. The senior 
citizens in the district that I am fortunate to represent and in every 
district know that they are simply being robbed.
  Senior citizens across this country expect every Member of Congress 
to address this situation. Addressing the issues of cost and 
affordability for prescription drugs as well as finding a reasonable 
approach to offering drug coverage to Medicare recipients is absolutely 
essential.

                          ____________________