[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 76 (Tuesday, June 11, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S5341]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about an important 
part of the strategy to lower prescription drug prices for all of our 
citizens, particularly our seniors who are using about 18 different 
medications in a year. We have a strategy to focus on with the intent 
to do everything possible to update Medicare to cover prescription 
drugs with a comprehensive Medicare prescription drug benefit which is 
long overdue.
  Medicare was set up in 1965. It covers the way health care was 
provided in 1965. It needs to be updated to cover the primary way we 
provide health care today, which is outpatient prescription drug 
coverage.
  We also know there are a number of other actions we can take to lower 
prices for everyone. I had the opportunity yesterday with the Detroit 
Regional Chamber of Commerce to hear from a number of businesspeople, 
large and small, who are struggling with their health care insurance 
premiums, some choosing to no longer be able to provide health care, 
and others finding they are having to cut back, and hospitals and 
nursing homes and home health agencies, all affected by the explosion 
in prescription drug prices.
  When we look at the rising cost of health care, the majority of it is 
the cost of prescription drugs. A number of us have looked at what it 
is we can do to bring more competition, to bring prices down, and to 
make it more fair for Americans.
  Americans today are underwriting the cost of research. I am very 
proud that, through the National Institutes of Health, we are providing 
billions of dollars in basic research. We support companies then taking 
that research, and we allow them to write off their research costs as 
well as their advertising and other costs to be able to provide the 
necessary research and development for new prescription drugs. We give 
them a patent to protect their development so they can recover their 
cost. But at the end of that process, we find that Americans, even 
after we have heavily subsidized, supported, and helped pay for the 
research and development, are paying the highest prices in the world.
  One of the reasons is that there was a law passed in the late 1980s 
that puts a fence around the border of the United States as it relates 
to prescription drugs. It says that we as Americans cannot go across 
the border to Canada to purchase American-made, FDA-approved and safe 
drugs that are sold to Canada, on average, at half the price. We can't 
go to any other country as well.
  In fact, as was shown in the Wall Street Journal last Friday in a 
front page article, every time the European Union or Canada or some 
other country negotiates lower prices for their citizens, the drug 
companies make it up by raising American prices, even though we are the 
ones paying for the research that creates the new miracle drugs.
  To demonstrate this and to promote legislation, S. 2244, which 
Senator Dorgan, Senator Jeffords, myself, and many others, have 
introduced--it is a bipartisan bill to bring down this barrier at the 
border so Americans can get the very best prescription drugs at the 
very best prices from Canada--a number of us have been helping to 
sponsor bus trips to Canada to make the point.
  This is a picture of a number of us who were joining, from the House 
and Senate last week, a bus in front of the Capitol. This is a bus that 
the Alliance for Retired Americans has been sponsoring. In fact, we 
have over 14 different trips planned in the next several days into 
Canada. We kicked off one in Detroit yesterday where a group of 
citizens got on the bus to go 5 minutes across the Ambassador Bridge, 
in which they were able to lower their prices on average by half, just 
by going across the bridge.

  This is not about putting seniors or families on buses to go across 
bridges to get lower prices. This is about dropping the barrier at the 
border. This is protectionist legislation that does not allow us to 
have business relationships across the border to bring back those 
American-made drugs at a reduced price.
  We can trade with Canada on agricultural products, manufacturing 
products, all kinds of things. People go back and forth across the 
border and do business every day. But when it comes to prescription 
drugs, we have not been able to do that. That creates a situation where 
we don't see the kind of pressure on our companies to be competitive 
and fair to Americans.
  We want to get people off the bus. We want those prescriptions coming 
back to the United States to our neighborhood pharmacy, so a senior can 
walk in and get the reduced price.
  I will just share with you some of the price differences we have seen 
as we have taken the bus trips to Canada from Michigan. Zocor, for high 
cholesterol, if you need to purchase this in Michigan, the price will 
be somewhere in the range of $109. If you drive that 5-minute bus trip 
across the border, you can get that same Zocor for $46. If we look at 
Prilosec for heartburn and ulcer relief, $115 in Michigan; $55 across 
the border to Canada.
  Probably one of the most disturbing ones for me is a breast cancer 
treatment drug. I have taken to Canada breast cancer patients, who are 
in desperate need of this lifesaving treatment and medication. 
Tamoxifen is a well-known breast cancer treatment, $136.50 in Michigan; 
$15.92 across the bridge.
  There is something wrong with this picture. There is something wrong 
when Americans are supporting and funding the development and 
underwriting costs and subsidizing, through tax deductions and tax 
credits, the development of these lifesaving medications, and we are 
paying so much more for these lifesaving drugs. It makes no sense.
  I urge my colleagues to support our effort, to come on as cosponsors 
and support the effort to open our borders and lower prices for 
prescription drugs. We have a bipartisan bill, S. 2244. The time is 
now. We want to get the seniors off the bus, get lower priced 
prescriptions into the local pharmacy or the hospital or into the 
clinics around the State of Michigan. It is time to do that. It is past 
time to lower the prices for people.
  This isn't the same as buying a new pair of tennis shoes. It is not 
the same as buying a new car, although coming from Michigan, I want to 
see people buy a new car every year. But if they don't, it is not going 
to threaten their life. But if a breast cancer patient does not get her 
Tamoxifen, it does threaten her life. That is the difference.
  This is medicine. It is not optional. It is time we understand that 
and get serious about lowering prices, about creating the competition 
that will allow us to lower prices.
  I have never seen an issue that affects more the economy of this 
country. It affects every businessperson trying to provide health 
insurance for themselves and their employees. It affects our 
universities' health clinics. The president of Michigan State 
University came to me expressing great concern about his rising health 
care premiums and the requirement that he was going to have to lay off 
people because they couldn't keep paying these rising costs, most of it 
from prescription drugs, and maintain the same number of staff at the 
university. This is ridiculous.

  Most importantly, this is ridiculous because of what it means to our 
families and our seniors. Yesterday on the bus were a couple who are 
paying $1,300 a month for their prescriptions, people on a fixed 
income. They were getting on that bus yesterday to go to Windsor, 
Canada, out of desperation to lower their prices so they could live 
independently in their own home and not have to be hospitalized or go 
into a nursing home and receive the kind of medicine they need.
  It is wrong that we are seeing this kind of disparity. I urge my 
colleagues, while we are working on the important issue of Medicare 
prescription drug coverage, that we do something today to lower prices. 
We can do something right now by just simply opening the border to 
Canada and making sure that our citizens get the prices shown by these 
yellow bars on this chart, instead of paying the high prices we see 
they are paying right now.
  I thank you, Mr. President. I urge my colleagues to get engaged in 
one of the most important issues affecting seniors and our families 
today. It is time to bring the prices down.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts is recognized.

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