[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16741-16742]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     LOWERING THE COST OF MEDICINE

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, first I commend our Democratic leader 
for an outstanding vision of what we should be doing to do right by 
America. His eloquence this morning certainly speaks to every single 
person in Michigan and what we care about, the priorities and values 
that we have, and certainly it speaks to the sense of urgency that I 
believe we need to get something done for the people we represent in 
this wonderful country. We need to do right by America.
  There is something wrong when we have provided funding for health 
care in Iraq for a broad, universal health care system, yet we cannot 
focus on health care at home for over 44 million people and focus on 
the costs of prescription drugs or make sure there is a real Medicare 
bill that works. There is something wrong with this picture. It is 
truly time for us to do right by America. That is our job.
  I speak today specifically about a topic that I frequently think 
about on the floor of the Senate that needs to have a sense of urgency 
about it as we come to the end of this week. We will not be in session 
in August. We will come back only for a few weeks in the fall. There is 
a sense of urgency at home about the need to lower the cost of 
medicine, the access to prescription drugs in this country.
  I rise to express great concern today because at this very moment the 
Senate HELP Committee was supposed to be marking up a bill that 
hopefully would lead to the safe importation of FDA-approved 
prescription drugs from Canada and other countries where it can be done 
safely. But, once again, the markup has been delayed. I am deeply 
concerned that with the number of legislative days winding down, we 
will not see a bill coming from committee to the floor of the Senate 
any time this year.
  We know the prices of prescription drugs continue to rise and 
continue to place a tremendous burden not only on our seniors but on 
everyone who uses medicine on a regular basis.
  We have a strong bipartisan bill that we put together to allow the 
reimportation of prescription drugs. It has been carefully discussed 
and deliberated. There is no reason that Americans should not benefit 
from the passage of this new law so we can have access to safe, FDA-
approved drugs that come from FDA-inspected facilities in other 
countries. In fact, Sav-Rx, one of the companies that is offering a 
Medicare drug card now, is even promoting reimportation as part of 
their marketing.
  As reported in Tuesday's Washington Post, the company's Web site 
reads:

       Sav-Rx is giving you the opportunity to save an additional 
     20%-30% on your mail order prescriptions through the use of 
     our Canadian Mail Order Pharmacy.

  This is one of our Medicare cards that is using a Canadian mail order 
pharmacy.
  I have to say I am more concerned about mail order or Internet 
sales--particularly Internet sales--where we do not have the 
safeguards, or may not know where the prescriptions are coming from, 
rather than what our bill does, which is allow the local pharmacist in 
Michigan or the pharmacist in any other State to do business with the 
pharmacist across the border in a safe, FDA-approved way, with a closed 
supply chain that brings the medicine from one place to another so we 
know where it comes from and we can assure its safety.
  But here we have one of those providing a Medicare card to seniors 
who are using right now a Canadian mail order pharmacy as part of this 
process. Yet we can't get the support to pass a bill that would 
guarantee this process is available for everyone through the local 
pharmacy--one pharmacy to another--and which is done in the safest 
possible way. We don't have regulations right now that mirror what we 
have in our bill in terms of promoting the safety of reimportation of 
prescription drugs.
  If we are going to continue to see mail order and Internet sales, we 
certainly need to address the issues that we have addressed in our bill 
to make sure this process is safe.
  This is all about numbers, as usual. The opposition is all about 
numbers. It is about the $17 billion annually that the drug companies 
stand to profit from the new Medicare law versus the $5 billion cost 
that American consumers can save per month from reimporting 
prescription drugs from Canada or allowing the local pharmacists in 
America to do business with the pharmacists in Canada.
  It is about requiring our seniors to go through this complicated 
process under Medicare to attempt to get a discount through a Medicare 
card that would set up much more to profit the drug companies than to 
profit the seniors. It is about a process that we are forcing people to 
go through to try to get help. It is complicated. There are multiple 
cards. The prices can change every 7 days. The discounted drugs can 
change every 7 days.
  We heard testimony on Monday from Dr. McClellan in charge of the 
Center for Medicare. What we are hearing is this massive effort of 
spending money to market and try to explain to people this complicated 
process. Why do we have this complicated process? Because it benefits 
the pharmaceutical companies. It doesn't allow Medicare to negotiate 
group prices to get the best deal for people. So we have this 
complicated, costly process going on to guarantee that the profits of 
the industry are protected.
  On the other hand, all we need to do is bring to the floor this 
bipartisan bill that would allow our local pharmacists to do business 
safely with pharmacists in Canada and other countries. We could drop 
prices in half immediately for consumers. We would save over $5 billion 
a month for consumers. We would truly begin to address the stories we 
hear all the time--it is happening; they are not just stories--of 
people who are choosing between food and medicine, paying their 
electric bill or paying their rent. We don't make up those stories. It 
is happening every day, and I am sure it is happening right now as I am 
speaking. We can fix that, too.
  If the HELP Committee brought up a bill, had a meeting and voted this 
bill out today, we would have on the floor a means for us to be able to 
work together to adopt a bill that works, is safe, and lowers prices. 
But instead one more time this is delayed--delayed, delayed. 
Unfortunately, folks can't delay their bills. When they go to the 
pharmacy to get their medicine, they can't say: I would be happy to pay 
you but nothing is happening in Congress yet. The President won't 
support lowering prices. So I can't afford to pay this right now. Can 
you wait? Can I pay it next year when they finally get around to fixing 
this, maybe? People can't do that when they go into the pharmacy. They 
have to pay for their medicine.
  There is a sense of urgency which they feel that, unfortunately, is 
not felt in this body, or by the leadership. Those of us who have been 
working across the aisle to get something done certainly feel it, but 
leadership does not. Unfortunately, the White House does not.
  What we see is a continual unwillingness to schedule a bill, to bring 
it out, to give us an opportunity to vote and to get this done in the 
Senate.
  We have legislation, S. 2328, the Pharmaceutical Market Access and 
Drug Safety Act, that is widely supported. It has been crafted 
carefully by Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle. It will work. 
It will guarantee that we put in place the safe precautions we need and 
that will allow us

[[Page 16742]]

to finally be able to address the issue of lowering prices.
  There are many concerns that I and my colleagues have about the bill 
before the HELP Committee. I will not go into all the specifics at this 
time, except to say we feel confident that the legislation we have 
introduced would fix the concerns and the problems, and that we can 
work together to get this done in the right way.
  I am deeply concerned that right now seniors of this country are 
being asked to wade through Medicare card after Medicare card trying to 
find out whether there is anything that can be done for them in terms 
of lowering prices. They are wading through all the other complexities 
of the Medicare bill. We are not taking action as we could on something 
that would immediately make a difference.
  I go back to what our Democratic leader spoke about so eloquently 
this morning. Senator Daschle spoke about doing right by America.
  How is it that there is a sense of urgency here to be providing funds 
to make sure those in Iraq have access to health care? Certainly we 
want them to have access to health care. But what about us? What about 
doing right by America as well? What about taking just a portion of the 
funds we are spending abroad to build roads and schools and create 
health care systems and use that here at home to help Americans who are 
desperate about being able to afford the medicine they need?
  I might also say that this is directly related to the health 
insurance premiums our small businesses and large businesses are paying 
in America. We know that about half the cost increases on health care 
premiums comes from the explosion of prescription drug prices.
  When we pass the reimportation bill that we are coming forward with 
in a bipartisan way, we not only help our seniors who need our help and 
the disabled and their families and workers, we are helping businesses 
be able to lower prices. We are helping universities that have medical 
schools to be able to allow their pharmacies to do business with those 
across the border in a safe way. We are helping the local hospitals be 
able to lower their costs which in turn helps them lower the cost of 
health care and health insurance premiums.
  Just one proposal has very broad implications to bring down prices 
and make sure we are addressing one of the fastest rising components of 
health insurance for businesses in our country.
  We have a bipartisan bill before the Senate that is endorsed by the 
AARP, Families USA, the Alliance for Retired Americans, numerous 
senior, consumer groups, and health groups. I am deeply troubled by the 
fact it will be very difficult to bring this bill before the Senate and 
pass it before we break on Friday. This debate has gone on far too 
long.
  As I have indicated, this can help business and individuals with the 
high cost of health care. It is time to get it done. We have the 
greatest country in the world. Give us a chance to make this change and 
we can help every American have access to the medicine they need. We 
can take an important step forward in doing right by America.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Graham of South Carolina). The Senator 
from Iowa.
  Mr. HARKIN. How much time do I have in morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 10 minutes.

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