Joe Cunningham: “I had pneumonia about 5 years ago, and I went to pick up the prescription drug and I looked at it. It was 120 bucks. As…”

“I had pneumonia about 5 years ago, and I went to pick up the prescription drug and I looked at it. It was 120 bucks. As I picked it up, I sat there and I thought, how does a family with three or four children afford 120 bucks per bottle of Augmentin to help them with the flu or with other antibiotics? It is a real fact. It is hard. But Mr. Speaker, I say to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), does he know the cost of my prescription drug? It cost me $17. Because my wife worked with the Encinitas school district and she had insurance. That is what we want, is a private-public partnership for those people that cannot afford prescription drugs to help them. Over 1.4 million people in California will have no copay, no cost whatsoever. But it will help them in our bill. I think that your bill, with its costs, is devastating in the long run. It will not help. If Democrats can demonize pharmaceutical companies, then what is left? The government. If you can demonize insurance companies, what is left for health care? Government-controlled health care. We rejected that in 1993 when the then First Lady offered it. I oppose government-controlled health care, and maybe that is the difference in us, because it will drive this country in debt. I talked to some people from Canada. Do my colleagues know where they go to get their health care? They come clear down to Buffalo, New York to get it, because it is so bad with their government-controlled health care.”