Tom Coburn: “we are having a debate today; and we have heard a lot of partisan bickering back and forth, and it is because what we…”

“we are having a debate today; and we have heard a lot of partisan bickering back and forth, and it is because what we are doing is the wrong thing, and the politics of Washington is claiming to fix a problem that is very real, but it is fixing the wrong problem. The problem is, there is no competition within the pharmaceutical industry and what is there is limited in its base. As we seek to solve the problem for the very seniors that need our help, if we do not solve the problem on competition, then we will, in fact, have wasted Medicare dollars and cost-shifted another large cost of health care to the private sector. I would like to introduce into the Record the FTC Web site showing four pharmaceutical companies who have been paying their competitors not to bring drugs to market, costing the American consumers over $250 million a year. I would also enter into the Record various portions of the paper talking about the pricing of prescription drugs, not the availability but the pricing. If we fail to address that, we have shirked our duty completely. Neither the Republican or the Democrat bill does that. Why the High Cost of Prescription Drugs Is a Problem We Can't Afford to Ignore Spending on prescriptions rose a record 17.4% last year. Elderly patients saw the largest increases, with average prescription prices increasing 18% for women aged 70-79 and 20% for women 80 and older.”