[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 24, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H534-H535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2015
                   RISING COST OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bishop of Utah). Under a previous order 
of the House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of talk over 
the past few months and debate here in the Congress about the high cost 
of prescription drugs. I just got a letter from one of my constituents 
in Indiana, Joseph Neff. Joseph is 67. He and his wife buy a lot of 
prescription pharmaceuticals from Canada. In this letter he sent me, it 
shows a 3-month supply of the products he has been buying from Canada, 
and it shows he is going to save $3,007 a year by buying 
pharmaceuticals from Canada, the very same thing he would buy here in 
the United States, the same identical prescription

[[Page H535]]

drugs; and yet they cost less in Canada than if he bought them here in 
the United States. He is saving 50 percent on the prescription drugs he 
is buying from Canada. If he bought them through AARP on a discount 
card, it would be 10 percent. So he still saves more by going directly 
to Canada.
  The pharmaceutical industry has been fighting day and night to stop 
reimportation of pharmaceuticals. They have gone to the FDA and HHS, 
and they have told them it is not safe to have reimportation; and our 
health agencies have been going along with it. And yet we held four 
hearings, and we asked them to give one example where people have been 
harmed by pharmaceuticals brought in from Canada. They could not name 
one example. So the pharmaceutical industry has unusual support at our 
health agencies. They have undue influence at our health agencies; and 
as a result, American people are paying exorbitant prices for 
prescription drugs compared to what they are paying in Canada, Germany, 
and other parts of the world.
  Just recently there was a poll that was released by the Associated 
Press and stated that a third of American families struggle to afford 
their prescriptions, and 73 percent of those families have to cut their 
dosages by as much as half so they can take care of their health needs. 
Two-thirds of those polled felt that the Federal Government should open 
up this market and make it easier for people to buy prescription drugs 
from Canada and other countries at lower cost.
  So why does our government not listen to the people we represent? 
There is no safety issue. That is a bogus argument. Yet the health 
agencies continue to walk in lock-step with the pharmaceutical 
companies saying it is a health risk, and it is simply about money. The 
big profits they make in the United States are huge compared to what 
they are making in other countries. We continue to let them do that 
when the price they charge should be fair and equitable throughout the 
world. All of their profits should not be loaded on the backs of the 
American people who are struggling to make ends meet.
  In July of this year, we had a vote on this floor. The vote 
overwhelmingly passed saying that we wanted the reimportation of 
pharmaceuticals to be allowed so Americans can get the breaks that they 
are getting in other countries. Even though that passed, when the 
Medicare prescription drug bill came out of conference committee, they 
left that out.
  The other thing that bothers me is the American people realize that 
our government should be negotiating to make sure that Medicare 
prescription drug prices are as low as possible, and yet there is a 
prohibition in law passed by the Congress of the United States that 
does not allow our government under the Medicare prescription drug bill 
to negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies to get the best price 
for the American taxpayers. So we pay the highest prices for 
pharmaceuticals that the pharmaceutical companies want to charge, while 
in other countries there are negotiations taking place between their 
governments and the pharmaceutical industry. This just is not right. 
This is something my colleagues on both sides of the aisle feel very, 
very strongly about.
  Mr. Speaker, we have to take our health agencies and anybody else to 
task who is trying to load all of the profits of pharmaceuticals on the 
backs of the American people. The American people need fairness; they 
need to know that they are going to be treated fairly. They should not 
have to cut their pharmaceutical products in half in order to stretch 
them out to take care of their health needs. They do not want to pay up 
to 300 percent more than they are paying in Canada for the 
pharmaceuticals products, and they should not be called criminals 
because they go across the Canadian border and buy the very same 
product up there for less than they can get it here in the United 
States.
  In addition, governors of 25 States and a multitude of cities across 
the country are now trying to negotiate with Canadian pharmaceutical 
distributors to buy their pharmaceutical products through Canada 
because they will save so much money, and it will help their budgets at 
the State and local level. This is a problem that is not going to go 
away. The pharmaceutical industry and our health agencies need to 
address this problem; and, Mr. Speaker, we are not going to be quiet on 
this floor until this problem is solved.

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