[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25797]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mrs. EMERSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, health care reform has gripped the 
Congress for the better part of a year now, and we're finally getting 
to the core of this debate: cost. Without an affordable system of 
health care, we'll forever have problems with access. But too many good 
bipartisan proposals to lower costs have been ignored--eliminating 
international barriers to market access for U.S. consumers, speeding 
new generics to market, promoting comparative effectiveness research, 
and better decision-making tools for doctors and their patients.
  You may ask, Why? It's real simple. The administration made an $80 
billion deal with the big drug companies that prevents us from offering 
our proposals to save consumers money on their medicine. Our 
constituents who often have trouble paying for their medicines today 
will continue subsidizing the people from other countries who pay half 
of what we do for the same drugs. So this $80 billion deal actually 
makes more money for big drug companies because it will encourage more 
people to take brand-name pills instead of generics, increasing the 
market share and profits of the drug companies. No wonder they were so 
quick to accept this deal, and what a scam the administration has 
fallen prey to.

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