Senate Proceeding on Oct 22nd, 2009 :: 7:52:30 to 8:12:50
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7:52:29 to 7:52:50( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota is recognized mr the quorum call be vacated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dorgan: the senate continues to discuss in various health care, i wanted to comment once again of the need when the health care bill is finally brought to the floor of the

7:52:30 to 8:12:50( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Byron Dorgan

7:52:51 to 7:53:13( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: senate, opened for debate and amendments, to offer an amendment, which i and others will do, to address the cost of prescription drugs. one of the significant areas of cost increases for medicine is in prescription drugs. and i think it's important to point out prescription drugs are unbelievably important to many people. they manage their diseases with prescription drugs that were not

7:53:14 to 7:53:34( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: available years or and those people who are able to access prescription drugs for disease management are able to keep out of the hospital and avoid being in an acute-care bed, which is the costliest form of health care. and so i understand the importance of prescription drugs in the health care system.

7:53:35 to 7:53:55( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: i want us to continue to incentivize the development of new drugs, research and development. we do a lot of that through the national institutes of health, and so, too, do the pharmaceutical industry -- or pharmaceutical companies engage in research and development. but even as we do all of that to try to incentivize the developmen and make drugs available for

7:53:56 to 7:54:16( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: disease management, even as we do that it's important to understand tt part of the process of trying to put some downward pressure on health care costs is to put some downward pressure on the price of prescription drugs. it is a fact that we do pay the highest prices in the world for brand-na prescription drugs. i mean, that's just a fact. and in my

7:54:17 to 7:54:37( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: fair. so when a bill does come to the floor of the united senate, i and a number of my colleagues -- there are over 30 of us that have cosponsored legislation on prescription amendment the legislation that we have it has a significant safety provision in it, would make our

7:54:38 to 7:55:00( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: drug supply now exists, requiring pedigrees and batch everything that's produced and distributed so you it. it would be a much more effective way of addressing the issue of but essentially what we would propose is to put some downward pressure on prescr by

7:55:01 to 7:55:21( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: the freedom to access that identical prescription drug -- wherever it is sold, if it's f.d.a. approved -- for a fraction of the price that is charged here in the united states of america. i have in my desk here in the senate two pill bottles. medicine called lipitor.

7:55:22 to 7:55:43( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: i'm used it many times and would ask consent that i be a allowed to use it on the floor. these bottles of lipitor are bottles that contain medicine producedn the exact same manufacturin this plant happens to be in ireland. and lipitor happens to be the

7:55:44 to 7:56:05( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: most -- most prescribed, i guess, prescription drug for the lowering of cholesterol anywhere in the world. so more peopl lowering of cholesterol than anything else. i'm not standing here advertising for it. i'm just making the point that this is made in ireland. then it's shipped all over the world. as you can see, these are two bottles that look identical, that contain the sam

7:56:06 to 7:56:27( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: in the same bottle, made by the same company, made in the same plant. this bottle was shipped to canada. this bottle of lipitor was shipped to the united states. this was 90 tab lets of milligrams, aintsz a $1.83 per tabl that the canadians are

7:56:28 to 7:56:49( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: required to pay for this drug. the americans, same pill, put in the same bottle, made in the same place in and f.d.a.-approved plant, the americans pay $4.48, pill, $1.83 if you buy it north of here; $4.48 if you're an american citizen. buying it in the united states. is that fair?

7:56:50 to 7:57:11( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: in my judgment, it's novment and it's not just lipitor. it is brand-name drug. now, how does that happen? how can they make this stick? well, they do it because the only -- you larks the onlyent that i can import a prescription drugnto this country is the manufacturer of the drug. therefore, if this prescription

7:57:12 to 7:57:34( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: drug is sold in italy or spain or france or canada or any numb frtion of the price, the american people are prohibited from accessing that identical f.d.a.-approved drug that's sold at half or one-third of the cost in the united states. we aim with our legislation to give the american people some freedom, the freedom to access

7:57:35 to 7:57:55( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: that drug. they're able to access that f.d.a.-approd drug from a chain of custody that is as safe at american chain of custody and allow tome to import that drug into this country by paying a fracon of the price. this is about freedom. i mean, why would we not want to gift american people the freedom and the advantage -- give the american people the freedom and

7:57:56 to 7:58:16( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: the advantage of the system of trading? some say you can't do that without limiting the opportunity for counterfeiting. well, you know what? they've been doing in europe for 20 years. if you are in spain and wnts to buy a prescription drug from france, good for you. it is easy to do under something called parallel trading. if you are in italy and want to buy a prescription drug from germany, it is not they have something called

7:58:17 to 7:58:39( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: parallel trading. they have been doing it for bingeds without any safety issue at all. and yet they say we ca here in america? we can't manage something the europeans manage routinely for two decades? i think we can. of course we can. now, it's not just lipitor. i mentioned previously that i

7:58:40 to 7:59:00( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: was at a farm yard for a farm meeting some while people sitting around on bales straw, just talking and there was an old codger there who was sitting around and the subject of health care came up and he said, well, i'm near 80 years old and my wife is about two years younger, near 80.

7:59:01 to 7:59:21( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: and she just suffered breast cancer. she's been fighting a battle with breast cancer in the last three years. he said -- and this by the way was in the southern part of north dakota. he said, we canadian border and then drove across the border every three months to buy tamoxifen for my wife to fight her breast cancer

7:59:22 to 7:59:44( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: and the reason we did that is because w here. we paid about 20 cents for what we would pay $1 for in the united states for tamoxifen that my wife needed to fight breast so he said, we who to drive to the canadian border and across and buy it. and the fact is, he was allowed to do that because, as an informal circumstance they allow

7:59:45 to 8:00:07( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: us to -- basis they allow you to bring across 90 days of prescription drugs. for the most part, americans are not allowed to access those lower-cost prescription drugs. why not give the american people the freedom to access the same drug put in the same bottle, made by the same company if that company plant is inspected by the f.d.a. and the drug itself

8:00:08 to 8:00:28( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: is f.d.a.-approved? why would you prevent the american people from having alaska ssess to the very -- from having access to the very marketplace that everybody boasts about as being the free market? i hear all my completion come to the floor and freedom. and and yet i've seen some of them vote against the bill that would give the consumer the freedom to access these same drugs in

8:00:29 to 8:00:49( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: places in the world where it is sold for a fraction of what the american people are charged. now, the 30 of us that have come together to write this legislation, it is a dorgan-snowe bill. myself ask m and my colleague, senator snowe, from maine have worked on

8:00:50 to 8:01:10( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: for this for a long, long time. the late senator kennedy was a cosponsor of this amendment. senator john mccain is a cosponsor of this legislation. last year when barack obama was a senator, he was a my bill. so this is a very wide coalition. senator grassley from iowa just asked me about this legislation when we came over for the last vote. this is a very wide coalition of

8:01:11 to 8:01:33( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: republicans and democrats who believe the american people ought to be given the freedom to access these identical prescription drugs that are sold at a fraction of the price in all the rest of the world at a time when the highest prices are charged to the american consumer. if the goal of health care is twofold: one, that is to try to put some downward pressure on

8:01:34 to 8:01:54( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: these relent price increases or cost increases for health care, and; number two, to extend coverage for those that don't have it? how could we possibly bring a health care bill to the floor of the united states senate and avoid the issue of whether we're going to do something about the relentless increasing marc of -- of prescription drug prices? how could be wk off the floor having done health care and say, yeah, we didn't do anything,

8:01:55 to 8:02:17( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: however, about prescription drug prices? yes, we understand it's ratcheting up, up, up and up, way out of the reach of some folks, but we did nothing about it? some will say, well, except that there was a deal the white house announced an $80 billion deal with the pharmaceutical industry and so on that would have senior tizens buying brand-name

8:02:18 to 8:02:39( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: prescription drugs in a manner that filled half of the doughnut hole -- that's all washington jargon -- and so, therefore, it becomes something that pharmaceutical industry has contributed to the well-being of senior citizens. and, you know, i don't know about all that. i think it was russell long who said, i'm not for any deal that i wasn't a part of. well, i don't know about what this deal is.

8:02:40 to 8:03:00( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: i called the white house when when it was represented by the pharmaceutical industry that this deal also included the white house's agreement to oppose the legislation that i and others are talking about here, and i called the white house -- actually, i didn't call a physical structure, i called a high official in the white house and asked the question, was there a deal made by which they

8:03:01 to 8:03:21( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: would oppose this, and the answer was no, no such deal was made. so there are a bipartisan group of us that will be here to offer this amendment, and i fully expect that in the consideration of deciding thousand put some downward pressure on the -- deciding how to put some

8:03:22 to 8:03:43( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: pressure downward pressure on increases, our colleagues will join senator snowe in i in passing this amendment. at long last, at long, long last, having fought this issue for many years, i believe that as we consider the health care bill on the floor of the united states senate, that we will include something that puts some pressure to bend down or at least to limit the kind of increases, price increases every single year we see on these

8:03:44 to 8:04:04( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: brand-name prescription drugs. let me say again, i have great respect for the pharmaceutical industry it is looking after its own interests. good for them. they should. they produce in miracle drugs, some of it with public funding national institutes of health. but however it is, some of it perhaps with -- andly not

8:04:05 to 8:04:25( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: perhaps -- and certainly not perhaps, but some of it with their own research and development. i don't wa interrupts our opportunity to produce these new ms that help the american people. but i know what will happen. the mi amendment, we'll have people popping up here on the floor of the united states senate and say ha, what you're going too do is shut down research and development for new drugs. that's what you're doing.

8:04:26 to 8:04:47( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: you're going to shut down r&d that's going to develop the next miracle drug for alzheimer's or parkinson's and so on. i say no, that's not the case at all. it's just not the case. in fact, they pay a much lower price for the brand-name drugs, the same drugs that we pay for, they pay much lower prices in europe and do more research and development in europe than we do here in the united states. so go figure.

8:04:48 to 8:05:08( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: and it's also the case that the industry spends more for marketing, advertising and promotion than they do on research and development. and if you doubt me, just turn on your television set tomorrow morning when you're brushing your teeth and listen to the advertisements. the advertisements say, go ask your doctor today, run down to your doctor and ask whether the purple pill is right for you.

8:05:09 to 8:05:29( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: or don't you wake up this morning thinking that you need some flomax? go talk to your doctor. you must need flomax, whatever flomax is. my point is, they just relentlessly push these medicines at you with unbelievable amounts of advertising. so i'd say, you know, how about knock maybe pumping some of that money back into the fact is, the only way you

8:05:30 to 8:05:50( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: can get a prescription drug is if a doctor thinks you need it. that -- that maybe is where the decisions ought to be made, not while you're brushing your teeth watching a comoacial television about whether the -- commercial on television about whether t purple pill would enhance your lifestyle. so i only say that because i know the pushback when we offer this amendment this will opportunity to do research and develo

8:05:51 to 8:06:12( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: nothing could be further from the truth. it w and i want the pharmaceutical industry to succeed. this -- this amendment is not punitive at all. iant them to charge prices that allow them to make profits. i just don't want them to charge the highest prices in the world to the american consumer, to do it over and over and over again. why? because they can. because the american consumer

8:06:13 to 8:06:35( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: doesn't have the freedom to access those lower-priced prescription drugs in the world economy. let me just mention finally about the larger area of health care. i held a august, as most of did i'm sure. i had standing-room-only at every single meeting, and i had people allege that whatever is

8:06:36 to 8:06:57( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: done with health care will be a bill that will cover health care for illegal aliens, it will be a bill that pays for health care costs for abortions, it will be a piece of legislation that does this and that. it's unbelievable the allegations out there, which have no basis in truth at all. i mean, i'm not going to vote for a bill that does the five or

8:06:58 to 8:07:18( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: six things that most people are alleging the bill would do, but that's -- that's not going in legislation. this legislation that we will consider i hope will be -- and if it's not, i will offer to amend it, and if i can't amend it and can't fix it, i won't support it -- but i -- i really believe legislation that will be supported by a good many, and perhaps including myself if it

8:07:19 to 8:07:39( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: is the right kind of legislation legislation, will be legislation that is a serious attempt to try to address the issue of increasing costs we spend much money any in the world on health care -- much more than anybody else in the world on health care. and yet we don't have the results. we rank according to c.i.a. data, which keeps information on all the countries, we rank 50th in life expectancy.

8:07:40 to 8:08:01( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: so we spend much more than anybody else in the world and rank 50th in life go figure. i mean, there's something wrong with that picture. and so the other issue is a lot of people don't have health insurance because the increased costs of health insurance are running out people's ability to pay for it. and one other point that's important is most people that do

8:08:02 to 8:08:23( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: have health insurance believe, well, i'm set, i'm fully insured. in most days, they are not. in most cases, they are one serious illness away from bankruptcy i met a woman recently who was a quadriplegic. about ten years ago, she had $600,000 in the bank, she lived in a home and had home equity, she had a job and insurance.

8:08:24 to 8:08:45( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: ten years later, it's all gone. she' a unbelievable she suffered a very s illness that she's reached the cap on her insurance policy. so she is one of those the demonstration of being one serious illness away from bankruptcy even if you have insurance.

8:08:46 to 8:09:07( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: i mean, this country is a better country than to decide that doesn't matter. one-half of the bankruptcies in this country are bankruptcies as a result of health care costs. chamber goes around their state and discovers that there's a benefit being held someplace for somebody that n

8:09:08 to 8:09:29( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: or somebody that has some other medical difficuy. and they're doing some sort of fund-raiser for the community to see can they raise enough money for this surgery so this person can get health care, because that's the only way they can get this surgery because -- so they need donations from neighbors. we can do better than that. and that's the reason that there's an interest in trying to find some way to address this

8:09:30 to 8:09:50( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: health care now, i want to mention one additional point and that is last evening there was a vote on what is called commonly here the doctors' fix that deals with physician reimbursements. and a reporter asked me as i left last evening, wasn't this some significant rejection of the health care piece?

8:09:51 to 8:10:12( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: the answer was no. that vote last evening was want a harbinger of anything. the vote last evening was -- was on the issue of fixing physician reimbursements but it was done in a way that -- that was not paid for and a good many members of the senate felt that that's not the way to do it. we should and will, in my judgment, fix this physician reimbursement issue. we must.

8:10:13 to 8:10:33( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: we can't have a circumstance where physicians are told, by the way, in two or three years from now, your reimbursements are going to drop off a cliff 25% or 35% and then we'll see you decide not to treat medicare patients. that w't work. and so we have to fix thi but we're in the middle a very deep hole with very significant budget deficits, the most significant recession since the

8:10:34 to 8:10:55( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: great depression. you can't just, we can't just add $240 billion to the federal budget deficit. and so we will, in m judgment, address legislation with the physicians payment issue and fix that issue because we have to. but we have to do it the right way. that's all that vote was. th about how health care reform

8:10:56 to 8:11:17( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: might be dealt tomorrow, or yet. it was jus a vote on that issue with respect to the deficit, and a lot of members of congress decided, do you know what? let's come b do it in a different way. now, let me make one final point. the majority leader of the senate is working, along with ma others, to try combine the best of several pieces of legislation.

8:11:18 to 8:11:39( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: it's not an easy job. but the fact is, he will bring a floor of t senate. it will be wide open for amendment and we'll have a lot of the best ideas that come to the floor in the forms of amendments about how to improve the bill. and that's exactly the way this process will work. and i don't think we ought to get ahead of the process alleging this or that. let's take a look at what it

8:11:40 to 8:12:01( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: bill does and says and provides. let's offer improvements where improvements can be made. we'll have votes on all of those issues and see if we can do something good for the american people. the american people deserve that. this has been a tough time with a very deep economic hole that we've been going part of the ecomic distress in this country is to try t at the end of the day, the month

8:12:02 to 8:12:22( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: or the year, how do i nay unbelievable increase -- pay this unbelievable increase in my health insurance cost because i know that me and my kids and my family needs to have health insurance? when you're losing your job and losing your home and losing hope in the middle of a great economic downturn, it's pretty troublesome to discover, do you know what, we probably can't

8:12:23 to 8:12:44( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: even insure our family against that's why we're a better country than that. we can do something here. i understan of people would -- would like to say they want to do something but in reality don't want to anything. and it's always easier to criticize. i mean, it's always easier to take the negative side. but the question is: can we come together with something positive

8:12:45 to 8:12:50( Edit History Discussion )

Byron Dorgan: that advances the intfs this country? -- advances the interests of this country? i hope that we can and believe