[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 94 (Tuesday, June 24, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5800]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             SUPPORT THE FREE MARKET PRESCRIPTION DRUG BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Garrett of New Jersey). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, we are about to take up the prescription 
drug bill, and a group of Democrats and Republicans have come together 
on an amendment to the legislation that is the free market prescription 
drug bill. It has three components.
  One is to bring generics to market so we can have competition between 
generics and name-brand drugs and force the prices down and make 
medications more affordable to more and more, not only of our elderly, 
but all consumers, and also help private businesses on their health 
care costs through their insurance policy.
  The second provision allows consumers and also the government and 
also the private sector to buy prescription drugs in anywhere of the 27 
countries, be they Great Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, 
England. They allow it in Holland, where you can get competitive 
prices. Because today, in Germany, many of the name-brand drugs are 30, 
40, 50 percent cheaper than they are here. And we can bring competition 
and the market forces to bear on the prices to make medications more 
affordable for our American consumers.
  The third provision is that the taxpayers have been funding research 
through the National Institutes of Health. The truth is the NIH is one 
of the largest venture funds in the world. Yet American taxpayers get 
no return on their investment through the NIH. All the cancer drugs, 
all the AIDS drugs, a great deal of the blood thinner drugs and 
medications, and arthritis drugs were funded through government 
research.
  In the private sector, many people who invest look for a 30 percent 
return on their investment. The taxpayer, through the government, gets 
no return on their investment. This legislation would call for a 10 
percent return to the taxpayers for that research for all of the new 
medications the taxpayers have funded, and we could make the NIH and 
the FDA, Food and Drug Administration, self-funded in the future. In my 
view it would keep America in the forefront of new medication. We could 
bring medications down in price, and we could get real competition and 
make medications affordable.
  What is really missing in this whole debate, in my view, is bringing 
the free market to play and to bear, and it would be successful. 
Unfortunately, the American taxpayer has been funding all the research 
and the only benefit we have gotten is that we pay the highest price. 
As we would say in Chicago, ``such a deal.''
  Now, the truth is, in England, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, 
American-made pharmaceutical drugs are 30 to 40 to 50 percent cheaper 
in those countries than they are here at home. The American consumer, 
the American senior citizen, is the profit guinea pig for the 
pharmaceutical companies. For too long they have been gouging our 
seniors, using our elderly to make up their profit margins, while in 
Canada, in Germany, in France and in England they are getting cheaper 
prices. So it has a bipartisan approach around a commonsense set of 
principles to make medications, the drugs people need for their 
children, for themselves, or for their grandparents, more affordable, 
more accessible.
  Now, why would it be that if we are about to go spend $400 billion 
over 10 years, why would we deny the government the ability, through 
the taxpayers, the ability to stretch that $400 billion to get more out 
of it? Nowhere else in the private sector would we do that. We are 
denying ourselves the right to use competition to bring down the price, 
to make medications more affordable to all of the folks, be they 
elderly or kids or families, so the family budget, the business budget, 
and the government's budget go cheaper.
  I have confidence in the free market. I wish some of my colleagues 
here on the other side of the aisle would have as much confidence as we 
have in the free market. I do not know what they are all scared of. We 
would have generics competing against name-brand drugs, and we could 
pick based on price and quality. You would be able to buy drugs at the 
local pharmacy, or if you look on the Internet and find the same drug 
cheaper in Germany, you buy it there. If globalization is such a great 
thing, why do we not allow it to work for everybody, not just for a 
select few? Why let Germany get the advantages of cheaper medications 
made here in America by American companies funded by American 
taxpayers?
  On the last account, allow our taxpayers to reap the benefits of 
their tax-funded research.
  Mr. Speaker, in the private sector world, if you get less than 30 
percent on your return, you know what you are called? Dumb money. I 
wonder how long we are going to treat the taxpayers as dumb money 
around here. This is taxpayer-funded research. Every drug related to 
cancer has been funded in part by taxpayer money; and the only thing we 
are guaranteed besides the medications, which we are not guaranteed, is 
to pay the highest price in the world for that medication. Yet people 
in Germany and England pay half that price.
  I have full confidence, along with my colleagues on the other side 
and folks on this side of the aisle. We have come together on a common 
set of principles with a common set of values to ensure affordability 
and return for taxpayer rights on their investment.
  I know the pharmaceutical companies do not want this bill because it 
would finally bring some real sensible principles like the free market 
to bear on the pharmaceutical industry and on the pricing of 
medication.
  So I hope that we have the opportunity to offer this amendment and 
everybody can either start not just talking the talk, but start walking 
the walk when it comes to their views in espousing the free market.

                          ____________________