Washington, DC -  My colleague and partner in the effort  to lower the price of prescription drugs, Congressman Gil Gutknecht (R-MN), traveled to Europe on a Congressional trip. While there, Gil purchased a month’s supply of Tamoxifin (the anti-breast cancer drug) for $59.05 at the airport pharmacy in Munich, Germany.  The bottle of Tamoxifin contained 60 tablets for two doses each day. When he returned to work, he also purchased the same bottle of Tamoxifin in a Washington, D.C. pharmacy near the Capitol.  This time he paid $366.

 
Spending on prescription drugs is expected to increase 20 percent this year while industry profits are growing at nearly the same pace.  That news is enough to make just about anyone sick. Even more disturbing, Americans pay more for prescription drugs than citizens of any other country on the planet. Drug companies make extensive use of taxpayer subsidized grants and research.  Much of that research comes from grants that are awarded to universities by taxpayer-funded entities like the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  This means that Americans are not only paying more for drugs than anyone else, but they are also picking up the tab for a large portion of the industry’s research and development – the very excuse they use to justify the high cost of prescription drugs!

During the 106th Congress I wrote and sponsored the International Prescription Drug Parity Act (H.R. 1885) to reduce America’s drug bill. The legislation, which was specifically designed to lower the price of prescription drugs by introducing competition into the marketplace, would have allowed Americans to buy prescription medicines for personal use from the G-8 countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, Germany, France and Italy. Only drugs from these countries that were made in U.S. approved and inspected laboratories would be included in the program.

After weeks of negotiation and compromise, the bill passed the Congress with bipartisan support. Finally the American people were offered hope for reasonable prescription drug prices comparable to what everyone else in the industrialized world actually pays. Unfortunately, the Clinton Administration halted implementation in December 2000 and the current Administration dealt consumers another blow when they allowed the Clinton Administration's ruling to remain in effect. Since that time, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has demonstrated little or no interest in executing the law.

Now, as Congress again turns its attention to providing a Medicare Prescription Drug benefit to Medicare beneficiaries, many are  beginning to discuss how we can address the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs. Over the next few months you will hear much rhetoric about solving the prescription drug cost crisis. Special interest groups, advocacy organizations and hired guns are offering a lot of thoughts and opinions about how to best solve the problem we face. Some like reimportation and some don’t. Some like generic drug usage and some don’t. Whatever the arguments, I urge you to pay close attention because your pocketbook and the pocketbook of those you care about are at stake.

Consumers and Medicare beneficiaries aren’t the only ones who are becoming more and more aware of the high cost of prescription drugs. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that seniors will spend $1.8 trillion on prescription drugs in the next 10 years. Simply by opening up markets, we could conservatively save 35 percent or $630 billion (Life Extension Network, 2002, Comparison of U.S., European and Canadian Drug Prices).  Even in Washington, DC, that is a lot of money.

I agree that Congress should build a prescription drug benefit into the Medicare program. But as the research and policy experts at Consumer Reports Magazine noted  “this program (Medicare Prescription Drug benefit) should not include a blank check to the pharmaceutical industry to increase its prices without limits.” Instead of simply passing a bill because it seems politically popular to do, I believe that Congress should also continue to explore policies that put competition into the marketplace. Doing so will be beneficial for consumers who purchase medication for themselves and their families. And the lower pharmaceutical prices would most certainly have a positive effect on any comprehensive Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. 

Drug reimportation is not the ultimate solution to the issue of Americans subsidizing the significantly lower prices for prescription drugs that the rest of the world already enjoys, but it is a start.  I have no problem helping subsidize hungry people in Africa or in Latin America.  But I have a real problem subsidizing the well-fed and well-to-do French and Swiss.