Feingold Gives Support to Legislation to Lower Drug
Costs
Bill ends tax breaks for price-gouging prescription drug
companies
June 1, 2000
Berlin, WI -- U.S. Senator Russ Feingold today highlighted his support
for legislation to give consumers a fair price for prescription drugs.
Feingold is a cosponsor of the Prescription Price Equity Act of 2000,
which would deny tax breaks to pharmaceutical companies that sell their
products at a significantly higher price in the U.S. than to certain other
industrialized countries.
"Thanks to massive tax benefits it receives from taxpayers, the
pharmaceutical industry had an effective tax rate nearly 40 percent lower
than that of other major U.S. industries from 1990 to 1996," Feingold
said. "While it’s vitally important that the government support research
and development for drugs that can save lives, it’s unfair that an
industry that receives such a huge benefit from taxpayers should sell its
products at much higher prices in the U.S. than it does abroad."
Pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. receive approximately $4 billion
each year in tax benefits to encourage research and development for
life-saving drugs. Yet, at the same time, the companies that receive this
huge tax break sell drugs in the U.S. at much higher prices than they do
in other countries such as Japan, Germany and Switzerland. This situation
is grossly unfair to taxpayers, and especially to seniors, who fund the
pharmaceutical industry’s tax break and then must pay sky-high prices for
prescription medication.
"Throughout my service on the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and my
time as Chair of the State Senate’s Aging Committee, I have worked to help
seniors live with independence and dignity as they age. But for many
seniors on fixed incomes, the cost of paying for prescription drugs drains
them of their economic independence and can force them into poverty or
increased financial dependence on their families," Feingold said. "That’s
why I support the Prescription Price Equity Act of 2000, which would
lessen prescription drug costs, giving seniors and all consumers the fair
prices they deserve."
Feingold's 39th Listening Session of 2000, and his
543rd since he was first elected, was held at the Berlin
Memorial Hospital, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
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