Heidi Alexander: “if I may, I thank the Senator for his remarks and his leadership on this amendment. I think it is important to be clear…”

“if I may, I thank the Senator for his remarks and his leadership on this amendment. I think it is important to be clear about this. Of course, the Senator has a right to object to the amendment, I suppose, but sooner or later this amendment, or something like it, is going to become law. I support the amendment. President Trump supports the amendment. Senator Durbin has worked with Republicans and Democrats, over the last 3 or 4 weeks, to think of different appropriate ways to require television advertising to state what the price of a drug is. There would be different ways to do it. I asked him to take a few weeks to help us talk that out. He did that. I think he has come to a conclusion that deserves support. I support the bill. I am chairman of the authorizing committee, the Health Committee, in the Senate. This is going to happen one way or the other. I suggest we try to find a way to go ahead and do it now because if the President supports it and you have bipartisan support in the Health Committee and bipartisan support in the Labor and Health Appropriations Subcommittee, it is going to become law. It makes good sense. The cost of healthcare is a major issue we need to address, and we can't do it all at once. Prescription drugs are a part of it. Prescription drugs are 10 percent of the cost of healthcare. They are 17 percent--we have had testimony before our committee--if you include the drugs that are administered in hospitals.…”