June 19, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 103 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S3814-S3815]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Prescription Drug Costs

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise to talk about something I have 
talked about many times on the floor and to reiterate over and over 
again that healthcare isn't political; it is personal. It is personal 
for people in Michigan. It is personal for every person, every child, 
and every family all across our country.
  It affects each of us, regardless of our political affiliation or the 
State we live in or what kind of car we drive. Hopefully, you are 
driving a car made in Michigan.
  At some point, just about all of us will need to take at least one 
prescription medication in our lifetime. The question is, Will we be 
able to afford it?
  Brian Hose knows this struggle very well. He owns Sharpsburg 
Pharmacy, an independent drugstore in Sharpsburg, MD. He joined me and 
some of

[[Page S3815]]

my Democratic colleagues at a press conference last week on the rising 
cost of prescription drugs.
  As a pharmacist, Dr. Hose works hard every day to make sure the 
customers he has have access to the medications they need to stay 
healthy and, in many cases, to stay alive.
  However, that task keeps getting harder and harder. Between 2008 and 
2016, prices on the most popular brand-name drugs rose 208 percent--208 
percent during that timeframe. Dr. Hose's customers didn't see their 
incomes rise 208 percent during that same time. Certainly people in 
Michigan didn't see their incomes rise 208 percent during that same 
timeframe.
  According to AARP, the average price of brand-name drugs that seniors 
often take rose at four times the rate of inflation in just 1 year--
four times the rate of inflation in 2017 alone. That is unsustainable 
for people.
  Dr. Hose's most vulnerable customers are seniors, of course, 
especially those who live on Social Security. As the price of 
medications keeps going up and up, Dr. Hose's customers find it harder 
and harder to pay for the medications they need.
  Dr. Hose said this: ``In no way is the current system looking out for 
the best interests of the patient, who ultimately needs to buy their 
medications to stay alive.'' Just ask anyone who takes insulin. Insulin 
is not a new drug. In fact, it has been around since 1922--almost 100 
years--when Canadian scientists treated the first diabetic patient. 
Those scientists sold the patent to the University of Toronto for three 
Canadian dollars. They said they didn't believe they should make money 
off of something that was so important to people's lives. Imagine. They 
knew how important their discovery was and how many lives would be 
saved. But somewhere between 1922 and 2019, insulin has become less 
about saving lives and more about making money. In fact, over the past 
15 years, insulin prices have tripled, putting people's health and 
lives at risk.
  Last summer, I met Nicole Smith-Holt, who lives in Richfield, MN. She 
came to Washington, DC, to testify during a hearing on prescription 
drug prices. Her son, Alec, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he 
was 24 years old. Alec worked hard to keep his diabetes under control, 
but one thing he couldn't control was the rising cost of his insulin.
  When Alec turned 26, he was no longer qualified to be under his 
parents' insurance plan, as we have under the Affordable Care Act. 
About 20 days later, he went to the pharmacy to buy his monthly supply 
of insulin. The bill for his insulin and supplies came to $1,300. It 
was a week from payday, and he didn't have $1,300, so he started 
rationing his insulin. Alec never made it to payday.
  Nicole said:

       I received a call that no parent ever wants to receive or 
     expects to receive. I was told that my son was found dead in 
     his apartment, on his bedroom floor all alone.

  She added:

       We lost an amazing young man. He had so many hopes and 
     dreams. He left behind a 5-year-old daughter who now has to 
     grow up without her father. His little brother lost his idol, 
     his sisters lost a best friend, and my husband and myself 
     lost our child.

  Affordable medication is a life-and-death issue for millions of 
Americans like Alec. Unfortunately, we have a pharmaceutical industry 
that is more interested in profits right now than in people.
  In 2018, there were 1,451 registered lobbyists for the pharmaceutical 
and health product industry. That is almost 15 lobbyists for every 
Senator. Their job is to stop competition and keep prices high, and 
they are doing a very good job. It is the ultimate example of a rigged 
system. It has to change.
  The No. 1 way we can bring down costs is to let Medicare negotiate 
the best price. From the beginning, Medicare Part D has been prohibited 
from harnessing the bargaining power of 43 million American seniors to 
bring down costs, which is absurd. That didn't make sense back in 2003, 
when it was passed as part of Medicare Part D's protectionist language, 
and it doesn't make sense today.
  We know how negotiation can work. We know how negotiation can work 
because it works for the VA, which saved 40 percent compared to 
Medicare. We have the VA system for veterans, and we have Medicare for 
seniors and people with disabilities. The VA negotiates. Medicare is 
stopped by law from negotiating best price--which, by the way, keeps us 
with the highest prices in the world. In fact, according to a recent 
AARP analysis, Medicare could have saved $14.4 billion on just 50 drugs 
in 2016 if that program had paid the same prices as the VA--$14.4 
billion. By the way, cut that down, that is hundreds of dollars--
thousands of dollars out of the pockets of seniors and people with 
disabilities and, more broadly, people across the country in every 
family.
  A recent poll found that 92 percent of Americans support allowing 
Medicare to negotiate drug prices. I would love 92 percent agreement on 
anything. We should be able to act quickly on something that 92 percent 
of the American public thinks we ought to do. So what is stopping us? 
The pharmaceutical lobby and my Republican colleagues in Congress. It 
is time to listen to the 92 percent of Americans who want to allow 
Medicare to negotiate with drug companies. It is just plain common 
sense.
  Negotiating a bulk price is not radical; it is actually something 
that is done in industry after industry after industry.
  Dr. Hose said:

       Seniors in Medicare Part D are one of the largest 
     purchasers of medication in the world. Yet they are unable to 
     leverage their buying power to decrease their costs.

  It makes no sense. It makes no sense. It is past time that this 
should be changed. But we certainly, as we are talking about ways to 
lower prices right now--and I commend the chairman and ranking member 
of Finance for working on this issue and the chairman for bringing the 
top drug company CEOs and the pharmacy benefit managers into committee. 
I commend him for that. But this is the moment we need to be totally 
focused and totally serious about bringing down prices in the most 
effective way. If we want to do it right, we need to allow Medicare to 
negotiate on behalf of the American people and put people first.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lankford). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.