Gilbert Gutknecht: “The truth is we could save at least $1.5 billion a year. And when people talk about the prescription drug problem, the…”

“The truth is we could save at least $1.5 billion a year. And when people talk about the prescription drug problem, the problem is that they always talk about the wrong side first; they always talk about coverage. The real problem is price. If people had access to drugs at world-market prices, we would have a much smaller problem dealing with the coverage side. The good news is I think the congressional leadership, and the Republicans in particular, now understand that if we believe in free markets for textiles, if we believe in free markets for lumber, if we believe in free markets for agricultural products, certainly we ought to have free markets when it comes to pharmaceuticals. I do not believe in price controls, but I do not believe that the world's best customers should pay the world's highest prices. And that is what is happening today, and it is partly because of the miserable job that the Justice Department has done, the administration, the FDA, and so forth in terms of encouraging more competition. So that is an issue that has huge budget implications. Because when we look at Medicare, we look at the VA, we look at how much we are already spending on prescription drugs, if we have access to world-market prices, we will see prices in the United States, in my opinion, drop by at least 30 percent.”