Political Quotes

“I will give a few examples. We have a drug called Crestor that deals with high cholesterol. Here in the United States, we pay $608 for a 90-day supply; in Canada $160--74 percent less in Canada. Premarin for estrogen therapy is $324 in the United States and $90 in Canada. Nexium is $782 in the United States and $228 in Canada. Synthroid is $878 in the United States and $212 in Canada. It is the same product, the same company. It is not generic. These are the same exact brand name products. Celebrex--a widely used drug for arthritis-- is $878 in the United States and $212 in Canada. What this bill would do, in addition to having Medicare negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry--which would substantially lower the prices Medicare pays--this bill would allow individuals, pharmacists, and wholesalers to import prescription drugs from licensed Canadian pharmacies, where drug prices are substantially lower than they are in the United States. I live 100 miles away from the Canadian border. In 1999, I took a busload of Vermonters--mostly women, many of them dealing with breast cancer--over the Canadian border into Montreal. As long as I live, I will never forget the looks on their faces when they bought the same medicine they were buying in Vermont, in the U.S.A., for one-tenth of the price--one-tenth of the price. These were working-class women who were struggling with breast cancer and who didn't have a whole lot of money.…”