[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8286-8287]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        IMPORTATION, DISCOUNT CARDS, AND MEDICARE MISINFORMATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, I would like to review this week as it 
relates to the Medicare prescription drug bill.
  It started with the Secretary of Health and Human Services announcing 
on Monday, given the confusion over the Web site that they had put up, 
that they were going to think about taking it down because there was 
such confusion out among seniors about the pricing and among the 
pharmaceutical companies about actually what, in fact, they were 
offering and whether there was a discount. The Web site was intended, 
as Tommy Thompson said, to drive prices down.
  There was such confusion in the marketplace that on the first day, 
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said we are thinking 
of taking the Web site down. Then they launched the big discount card 
that is supposed to provide somewhere between a 10 to 20 percent 
discount on prices.
  Every year for the last 6 years, prices of prescription drugs have 
gone up, on average, 17 percent, somewhere around five times the rate 
of inflation; and this year it is projected to go up 18 percent, and 
next year it is projected to go up 20 percent. The card was so 
confusing that at the Speaker's own town hall meeting, he got into an 
argument with a senior citizen who said, why do we not just do what 
Canada does and offer and, in fact, allow us to buy drugs in Canada 
where they are 30 to 80 percent cheaper? In fact, if you compare the 
discount that the drug card would offer like on Lipitor versus what the 
price is in Canada or Europe, even with the discount card, the prices 
for Lipitor in Europe are 129 percent cheaper than they are even with 
the discount card. Celebrex, another common drug, even with the 
discount price from the card, in Europe and in Canada, the price is 85 
percent cheaper. Seniors know that.
  Third, just this week, the Congressional Research Service found that, 
in fact, the cost of the bill for prescription drugs was never $400 
billion, but $534 billion, and that the administrator, Mr. Foster, who 
intended to tell Congress, was told he was not allowed to and withheld 
the information from Congress; that in fact the Members who told him 
that have broken the law; broken the law.
  I will tell my colleagues today, if that bill was on the floor, it 
would go down in resounding defeat, because people in Congress who 
thought they were getting all of the protection from the pharmaceutical 
industry have realized finally, having talked to their constituents, 
what is wrong with this bill. It does nothing to affect price. So we 
can have all the discount cards we want, we can have a Web site that is 
a failure, and now we have information out there that, in fact, people 
broke the law trying to pass this bill, and we now know what seniors 
have always told us. Since the bill did nothing to affect price, 
nothing to affect affordability, nothing to give them world-class drugs 
at world-class prices, which is the cheapest prices we could get, that 
in fact Congress was deceived and not given the information that was 
required to deal with that legislation.
  Just today, at 5:30 in the evening, Secretary Tommy Thompson, having 
fought tooth and nail to oppose the notion of allowing people to buy 
drugs in Canada and in Europe and to bring competition to the market 
and bring choice to the market, at 5:30 this evening Tommy Thompson 
announced that he believes in the reimportation of prescription drugs, 
that we should pass legislation, and he would recommend that the 
President sign that legislation. So in the last 48 hours, I just want 
my colleagues to review this with me.
  The Congressional Research Service has found out that members of the 
administration broke the law by withholding information from Congress. 
The Web site that they put up to help bring competition to the market, 
they are going to bring the Web site down because it is confusing and 
they have the wrong prices up there. The discount card is so confusing 
that on a report on NPR this morning, if you listened to the official 
trying to listen to the senior citizen, the official said, ``A mail 
order's around a 90-day. That's a 3-month supply.'' Senior: ``Oh, 
okay.'' Official: ``So to compare the prices, multiply.'' The senior: 
Multiply the 3?'' The official: ``The 30-day by 3 to get your 90 days, 
yup. And not all of them have mail orders, so.'' Senior: ``Mm-humm.'' 
The official: ``And then this will tell how many pharmacies are in

[[Page 8287]]

your area. How far would you like to go from our ZIP code to look for a 
pharmacy? You want to keep it within a mile?'' The senior starts 
laughing. The official: ``We do have other choices, there's a range 
here.''
  This, to a senior citizen who is looking for a lifesaving drug on 
arthritis, heart, blood pressure, bone strengthening. They are supposed 
to sit there and try to figure this out. Rather than giving them a 
benefit and rather than trying to organize and bring prices down in the 
market, we drive them crazy.
  So to top it off, Tommy Thompson now has come around to the view that 
in fact what we need and to deal with this is what all of us know who 
dared talk to any of our constituents, that we have got to deal with 
price. That is the only way to affect and help our senior citizens and 
our taxpayers, who now are going to be asked not to pay $400 billion, 
but $535 billion for a bill that if it was brought forward today would 
go down in resounding defeat.
  I welcome Tommy Thompson's open mind and bipartisanship to come to 
realize what all of us knew in this Congress, that we need 
reimportation to bring down the prices of prescription drugs.

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