Gilbert Gutknecht: “I rise to talk about prescription drugs as well, and I have to acknowledge that some of the points made by our…”

“I rise to talk about prescription drugs as well, and I have to acknowledge that some of the points made by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are exactly right. It is unfortunate that we are brought here tonight to discuss a bill that, as is true with every bill, is not perfect. And there are a lot of things about this bill that I do not like, but I want to talk tonight about what I think are the most glaring omissions from this bill. As we talk about prescription drugs, as we talk to our constituents, the one theme that comes through to us over and over again is that the prices are just going through the roof. And it is not just from seniors at our town hall meetings. It is from business people, big business people. We had a meeting the other day with one of the representatives of one of the largest corporations in the United States. They are spending $1 billion a year on prescription drugs. They are spending $1 million a week on just one name-brand drug. I am very concerned about the glaring omission in this bill, because we do not deal, I think, effectively with the most serious problem and that is the price. People cannot afford it. Whether someone is on Medicare, and we are going to try to create this insurance benefit, that will be good; but what about a middle-aged parent trying to support three kids and one of them gets a serious illness and needs $1,000 a month worth of prescription drugs? What are we going to do for them?”