Jerry Nadler: “For 30 years the pharmaceutical companies have opposed proposals for the government to help senior citizens buy their…”

“For 30 years the pharmaceutical companies have opposed proposals for the government to help senior citizens buy their products. Why? Because they are afraid that the government, as a bulk purchaser, would exercise market power to do what a bulk purchaser in a free market society should do, use bulk market power to get lower prices. And they tell us that lower prices will mean they could not do research and development when they spend 33 percent of their revenues on marketing and 14 percent on research and developing. That is why the Republican bill we debated a few weeks ago prohibits the government from negotiating prices. This bill is a substitute for that, not a good substitute, but the best we are likely to get. It will help the seniors buy their drugs and we ought to pass it.”