Byron Dorgan: “the Senator from Michigan knows that one issue with respect to this bill is adding a prescription drug benefit to the…”

“the Senator from Michigan knows that one issue with respect to this bill is adding a prescription drug benefit to the Medicare Program, but that is not the only issue concerning prescription drugs in this country. The other issue is that all Americans who get sick, who have a disease or an illness and who need prescription drugs need to be able to afford and have access to these medicines. Miracle drugs provide no miracles, lifesaving drugs save no lives for those who cannot afford them. So we are trying to find a way to put some downward pressure on prescription drug prices. The fact is that American people are charged the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Virtually everyone else in the world buys the same pill, put in the same bottle, made by the same company, and pays a much lower price. There is no Republican or Democratic way to get sick. There is no Republican version of Celebrex, Zocor, or tamoxifen, and there is no Democratic version of Celebrex, Zocor, or tamoxifen. There is just sickness, medicine, and need. I want the drug companies to do well. I want them to invest in research, experimentation, and finding drugs. We are doing that in the public sector, doubling the amount we are spending on the National Institutes of Health searching for cures for these diseases. By the same token, I want what we reap from all this research to be affordable by the American people who need them when they get sick.”