Date: 2003-11-18
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Madam Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. and. more importantly. I thank him for offering this motion that will be our only opportunity to provide a statement by the Members bf Congress as to the real issue of importation. since that opportunity will now be denied us in the prescription drug bill that we are anticipating coming to this floor. As many of our constituents know. millions of Americans have waited for the opportunity to be able to take advantage of the lower prices of pharmaceuticals that are available in Canada and in other countries. but specifically with respect to Canada. as we tried to address in the bill. We now see that that door is going to be slammed shut. The reimportation is going to be granted on one hand. but the certification by the Secretary of Health and Human Services will effectively close. as it has in the past. the opportunity for American citizens who are ill. who need these drugs. who are financially troubled and financially incapable of paying for some of these drugs. as a result of that. they take the prescription that their doctor has given them. they reduce the amount of pills they take per day. they reduce the dosage that they take in trying to get through the month in order to pay for. in many instances. lifesaving drdgs that they need by order of their physician. Many of our constituents. hundreds of thousands. if not millions of Americans. have now taken to forming buying clubs. of taking trips by bus. riding long hours on buses. to go to Mexico. to go to Canada to buy these drugs in Canadian pharmacies where the prices .are much. much lower than what they are having to pay through their health care plan if they have one or. if they do not have one at all. what they would pay on the market. It has been suggested that this is forced upon Americans because this is the only way that they can recapture the research and development dollars that continue to flow these pharmaceutical drugs to the marketplace. Some of that is true. But the question millions of American citizens are asking is why is it that only the American ill. the American sick. the American infirm are the ones who have to pay for this? They say. well. the other countries have price controls. the other countries negotiate. We asked for the authority to have the Secretary of Health and Human Services negotiate the prices of drugs for Medicare recipients as we do in the Veterans Administration. as WalMart does. as Costco does. as all big purchasers do with pharmaceuticals. and we were denied that opportunity in the House. So the only outlet. the only outlet for these citizens where their financial situation does not meettheir medical situation is to go to Canada. and now that opportunity is being slammed in terms of this reimportation provision within the Medicare prescription drug benefit that will be coming to the floor. As a result of that. without the negotiation power of the Secretary of Health and Human Services on the cost of drugs. without the reimportation provision. Americas senior citizens. and I must say all American families. are put at the mercy of the pharmaceutical industry that will now have no incentive to lower the cost of drugs. The prescription drug bill coming to the floor does some wonderful things for hospitals. wonderful things for doctors. some wonderful things for the pharmaceutical companies. but it does nothing for the people who have to consume those pharmaceuticals. It makes no effort at trying to control the price of those pharmaceuticals. the cost of those to individuals. And when we say that. we are saying simply have us negotiate as a large purchaser. That is what the business world does. People come to us and ask why do we not run the government more like a business. We try to run it like a business. and the businesses shut us down. So now the question of reimportation will be shifted from a vote in this Congress to provide for reimportation. in the new bill it will now all go to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. And the entire political and financial clout of the pharmaceutical industry will be focused on the Secretary of Health and Human Services to never certify for the reimportation of pharmaceuticals to the United States. thereby depriving millions of Americans the opportunity to lower the cost of the drugs that are necessary to them on a monthly basis as prescribed by their doctors. We are going to decide that those senior citizens. those people who are desperately in need of these pharmaceuticals are going to be the sole individuals that are somehow going to pay for the research and development of these drugs if. in fact. that argument is even accurate. The fact of the matter is. the reason the prices are really high in the United States. as. opposed to the other countries. is the power of the pharmaceutical industry to do just as they have done in the Medicare prescription drug bill and that is to take out all of the provisions that would have given a break to the sick and the elderly in this country. that would have given them an opportunity to lower the cost of the drugs that they have to buy every week and every month. That is why the prices are so high in the United States. It is not about research and development. It is about lobbying. it is about political contributions. it is about the force of this industry on this Congress and the House and the Senate and the Republican leadership to strip this bill of those provisions that were put in on a bipartisan basis. on a bipartisan basis in the House. on a bipartisan basis in the Senate. to strip them and remove them to the administration whicl has opposed these provisions from the very beginning. So the fate of our senior citizens. the fate of the elderly in this country. the fate of the ill. .the sick in this country. is now placed back into hands of the pharmaceutical companies. exactly where it was when we began this process. So the pharmaceutical companies. as this bill comes to the floor. get a great big victory and the consumers and the sick people in this country get nothing. They get a continuation of exorbitant costs of pharmaceuticals that are absolutely essential to their wellbeing and sustaining their health. maybe. in fact. in sustaining their life. So this motion by the gentleman from Wisconsin is the most important vote in terms of our ability to express the desire to have reimportation as part of our medical policy in this country and also to tell the conferees that they are bringing to us an imperfect product. and they should to back to the conference committee and make sure that Americas elderly and Americas sick are protected and have the opportunity to take advantage of the reimportation of those pharmaceuticals that they need. We should recognize that the bill as reported by the conferees is not a bill that protects the senior citizens of this country. it is not a bill that provides for those who are ill in this country. it protects the pharmaceutical companies and they should have to go back to conference.