Greg Ganske: “Prescription drugs have been a health blessing for Americans. Millions of lives have been saved, prolonged, and enhanced…”

“Prescription drugs have been a health blessing for Americans. Millions of lives have been saved, prolonged, and enhanced by prescription drugs. But those same drugs have also been an economic burden for American consumers and taxpayers. The problem of rising drug costs is too important to ignore any longer, and I will tell my colleagues, this is not just a problem for the elderly. Mr. Speaker, this is a photo of William Newton. He is 74 years old. He is from Altoona, Iowa. He is a constituent in my district. His savings vanished when his late wife Wanita, whose picture he is holding, needed prescription drugs that cost as much as $600 per month. Mr. Newton said, 'She had to have them. There was no choice.' And then, in speaking about the whole problem of high prescription drug costs, he said, 'It's a very serious situation, and it isn't getting any better, because drugs keep going up and up.' How about Mr. James Weinman of Indianola, Iowa, and his wife Maxine. When they make their annual trip to Texas, the two take a side trip as well. They cross the border to Mexico, and they load up on prescription drugs, which are not covered under their Medigap policies. Their prescription drugs cost less than half as much in Mexico as they do in Iowa. That problem is not localized to Iowa; it is everywhere.”