[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 81 (Friday, June 23, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1104]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                CANADA'S MEDICINE WON'T CURE U.S. SYSTEM

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. SAM JOHNSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 23, 2000

  Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert for the 
Record and excellent editorial written by the Republican Conference 
Chairman J.C. Watts. His editorial ran in the Dallas Morning News on 
Sunday, June 11, 2000.
  Mr. Watts correctly identifies the pitfalls of Congress adopting any 
health care system that resembles Canada's failed socialist system. 
Americans told us in 1994 that they do not want a national takeover of 
our health care system. We must stop any one-size-fits-some government 
run program and embrace a concept that gives seniors a plan that best 
fits their own needs.
  That is why Republicans have drafted a Medicare prescription drug 
bill that will provide needed medicine to our nation's seniors. It is a 
private based plan that will give seniors access to affordable, 
reliable and quality health care because I believe seniors should never 
have to choose between food and medicine.

             [From the Dallas Morning News, June 11, 2000]

                Canada's Medicine Won't Cure U.S. System

                            (By J.C. Watts)

       While it certainly is true that grass often looks greener 
     on the other side of the fence, anyone who has gotten a 
     closer view can tell you where the crabgrass grows. That 
     couldn't be any truer than in the debate over prescription 
     drug prices.
       Those who are making political hay by holding up Canada's 
     system of health care on the basis of cheaper drug prices are 
     playing a false and dangerous game of bait and switch. The 
     truth is that Canada's drug prices are linked to a system of 
     health care that no American would settle for. Don't trust 
     anyone who pretends to sell you one without the other.
       Just as Democrats say Americans should flock to Canada for 
     drugs, Canadians already flock to the United States for 
     treatment. The Canadian government uses a big-government 
     approach that rations health care and discourages new medical 
     technology. As a result, Canadians wait three times longer 
     for cancer treatments and nearly 12 weeks to see a 
     specialist. Canada also strongly controls the prices of 
     innovative medicines, which has discouraged investment in 
     research to develop medicines.
       Worse yet, the Canadian government won't pay for many of 
     the latest breakthrough medications. For example, a number of 
     top-selling drugs that are widely used by seniors in the 
     United States--drugs that treat ailments such as arthritis, 
     osteoporosis and allergic rhinitis--aren't reimbursed by some 
     of Canada's biggest provincial health plans that provide 
     prescription drug coverage to the poor, elderly and disabled.
       Canadians also face longer waits in gaining access to new 
     medicines produced by Canadian drug makers. The Canadian 
     government typically takes about a year and a half to approve 
     a new drug for sale--that is at least 6 months longer than it 
     takes here at home. Then, each provincial government in 
     Canada takes additional time in deciding whether the new 
     medicine will be placed on its list of reimbursable
       Even after approval, it can take almost two years for 
     officials in Canada to place a medicine on the provincial 
     reimbursement list. Typically, elderly patients with serious 
     health problems don't have that kind of time to spare.
       A recent report from the highly regarded Fraser Institute 
     in Vancouver found that 76 percent of Canadians believe their 
     health care system is ``in crisis.'' Seventy-one percent said 
     changes are needed because health care needs aren't being 
     met. The study also found that Canadian patients often are 
     forced to use the medicines selected by the government solely 
     for cost reasons. Patients who would respond better to the 
     second, third or fourth drug developed for a specific 
     condition often are denied the preferred drug and are stuck 
     with the government-approved ``one-size-fits-all'' drug.
       Perhaps most significant, however, is the fact that 
     Canada's system of establishing artificially low drug prices 
     has resulted in Canadian drug makers investing less in their 
     own research and development of promising new medicines. And 
     foreign companies often are reluctant to introduce new drugs 
     in Canada because of price controls. That means Canadians' 
     access to lifesaving new drugs is limited.
       Yet this Canadian-style health care with prescription drug 
     benefits is what some in Washington are proposing for 
     America.
       Just recently, we Republicans proposed a plan that 
     modernizes Medicare and adopts a prescription drug coverage 
     benefit. Unlike a one-size-fits-all plan, the plan is a 
     market-based solution that gives Medicare beneficiaries real 
     bargaining power through private health plans to purchase 
     drugs at discount rates, and it guards against escalating 
     out-of-pocket drug costs by setting a monetary ceiling beyond 
     which Medicare would pay 100 percent of beneficiaries' drug 
     costs.
       Our plan is 100 percent voluntary and preserves current 
     coverage for seniors who want to keep what they have, while 
     extending to other beneficiaries the choice of several 
     competing prescription drug plans. By rejecting the big-
     government approach, our plan not only would provide a needed 
     prescription drug benefit, it also would ensure continued 
     innovation and the development of lifesaving drug therapies 
     by American pharmaceutical companies.
       Today, America's pharmaceutical industry, which is being 
     criticized in the current debate, spends about $24 billion on 
     the research and development of more than 1,000 new medicines 
     that could combat a wide range of diseases. But that effort 
     comes with a cost--it takes 12 to 15 years and an average of 
     $500 million to bring each drug from the laboratory to the 
     market.
       For every dollar that American pharmaceutical companies 
     earn in drug sales, 20 cents is reinvested in developing 
     newer, better drugs. In many instances, American companies 
     invest the money and research time in discovering medicines 
     that Canada and other countries then turn around and 
     reproduce at a cost of a few pennies per pill. The reality is 
     that the Canadian system works because of the free-market 
     practices of the United States and other nations.
       America sets the global standard for creating new 
     medicines. Let's keep it that way, so that all Americans and 
     the rest of the world can continue to reap the healthful 
     benefits of our home-grown ingenuity.

     

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