Byron Dorgan: “I ran into a woman one day. She was in her eighties. She had heart disease, diabetes, and was living on somewhere around…”

“I ran into a woman one day. She was in her eighties. She had heart disease, diabetes, and was living on somewhere around $400 a month of total income. She said to me: Mr. Senator, I can't afford to take the drugs the doctor says I must take for my heart difficulties and for my diabetes. What I do is buy the drugs, and then I cut the pills in half and take half of the dose so it lasts twice as long. It is the only way. Even then I can hardly afford to pay for food. That is what the problem is here. The problem is that these pharmaceutical drugs are overpriced relative to what every other consumer in the rest of the world is paying for them. I am talking of other consumers in France, in Germany, Italy, England, Canada, and Mexico--you name it. That doesn't make any sense to me.”