Political Quotes

“this week we will be taking up the prescription drug bill, and what I find interesting, a number of us on both sides of the aisle have worked on the issue of bringing the cost of medications down to a level that our grandparents and parents could get the medications they need at the prices they can afford. There are three ways to address the issue of price and affordability. One is through the issue of market mechanisms and free markets, allowing competition, people to buy their medications in Canada, Italy, France, Germany, having it brought into the United States at the prices where they are 40 to 50 percent cheaper and bringing that competition to bear on the price of medications. We have a closed market as it relates to pharmaceutical products. We are not allowed to have competition. Therefore, Americans pay the highest prices in the world. If we brought competition in, medications like Lipitor, Zocor, seeing what we see all over on our TV would be at the same prices that people in France, Germany, Canada, and England are paying at a 40 to 50 percent discount of what we see in our corner grocery store.”