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WASHINGTON, D.C.—Bloomington, Minn. – In the second of a nationwide series of town hall meetings, Congressmen Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) and Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) joined forces to enlist seniors in the discussion to add H.R. 2427, the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act of 2003, to the final Medicare legislation.
In a town hall meeting at Gideon Pond Campus Chapel in Bloomington, Gutknecht and Emanuel continued a series of meetings that will sweep across several states in the coming weeks to encourage Senate and House conference committee members to include a market access provision in the final version of the overall Medicare bill.
“They can’t justify this chart,” Gutknecht said, pointing to a chart listing price disparities between the United States and Germany. “Why should a breast cancer patient in Bloomington pay $360 for a life saving drug, while a patient in Munich pays only $60? This is outrageous.”
“People come to the United States from around the world to access the best medical care in the world,” Emanuel said. “It is ironic and unfair that Americans must go overseas to find affordable medications. When seniors’ prescription drug expenses increase by 44-percent in three years, it is clear that the current system is unsustainable.”
Emanuel added, “It is unfair not only to seniors, but to all American taxpayers as Congress plans to spend at least $400 billion of taxpayer money on a Medicare drug benefit this year. Seniors – and all American taxpayers – deserve a better deal.”
Gutknecht and Emanuel led a bi-partisan coalition of House members to win overwhelming passage of the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act on July 25. Proponents of the bill argue competition and affordability are the most pressing issues in the prescription drug debate.
“As Ronald Reagan said, ‘Markets are more powerful than armies,’” Gutknecht said. “This bill simply calls on the power of markets to dramatically lower the costs of FDA-approved prescription drugs from FDA-approved facilities abroad.”
Emanuel addressed the issue of safety of imported drugs, saying, “We must not be fooled by the misleading scare tactics of drug producers. We’re here to set the record straight.” He continued, “This bill actually takes steps to improve the safety of prescription drugs by requiring all pharmaceutical manufacturers to use state-of-the-art technology to ensure that no counterfeit drugs can be imported into the United States.” Additionally, Emanuel noted, under terms laid out in the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act American consumers will still only be able to purchase FDA-approved drugs manufactured at FDA-approved facilities.
Representatives Emanuel and Gutknecht convened a similar town hall in Chicago two weeks ago and are planning additional meetings in Colorado and Vermont.
“It is important to keep the heat on our friends in the Senate. This is not just a battle of right versus left; it’s a battle of right versus wrong. It is simply wrong to require Americans to pay the world’s highest prices for prescription drugs. It’s important to remind folks that the high cost of prescription drugs affect all Americans,” Gutknecht concluded.
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