Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan, a leader in the freshman class, for yielding time and for her extraordinary leadership in so many ways.

It is just so invigorating to see the freshmen Members of this class taking the lead on this important legislation. Many of us just came in from the steps of the Capitol where, again, the freshmen Members took the lead.

Following up on a promise made last year during the election, For the People, we will lower the cost of healthcare in America by lowering the cost of prescription drugs. H.R. 3 does just that, named for our great and departed--may he rest in peace--Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Drug Act.

This is very, very important. And it may come as news to some of our Republican friends who were saying things to the contrary, but this is a product of the work of three committees in Congress.

I thank Chairman Pallone of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Chairman Richie Neal of the Committee on Ways and Means, and Bobby Scott, chair of the Committee on Education and Labor, for their relentless and persistent work on this lifesaving legislation where many freshmen are speaking now, controlling the time.

But in the course of the debate of yesterday, under the aegis of the committees of jurisdiction, many of them spoke at that time as well, demonstrating their leadership on this issue, making it a reality on the floor of the House. Again, I thank them for their bold urgency to lower the cost of drugs.

The crushing burden of prescription drugs is an issue that impacts every family in America. Much talk is given around here about having a seat at the table. The most important seat at the most important table is the kitchen table of America's working families where they enjoy family, but also address challenges that face them, whether it is in their health or in their financial health and how that is related.

This legislation today speaks to that important table of concerns.

In my travels across the country, I have seen grown men cry about how they cannot meet the needs of their families when it comes to prescription drug costs, a spouse with a long-term illness, children with chronic diseases, and the rest.

Prescription drug prices are out of control. The price of insulin invented nearly a century ago--when people say we have to cover our research costs--doubled from 2012 to 2016 because of Big Pharma.

Many people use it. A lot of people buy it. Let's increase our profits, they say.

Americans are paying four times or more for what Big Pharma charges for the exact drugs in other countries.

While Big Pharma companies reap record-breaking profits and multibillion-dollar windfalls from the GOP tax scam, 58 million Americans couldn't afford to fill a prescription they needed to stay healthy in the past year--58 million Americans.

Thirty-four million Americans know a loved one who died from not being able to afford a treatment that they needed.

We face medical, economic, and moral crises that demand that we act and that we act boldly.

Yes, they have a motion to recommit. I think it was appropriate that the Republicans have the opportunity to put an alternative on the floor, incremental pieces, not going to the heart of the matter. How dare they ever think of enabling the Secretary to negotiate for lower prices, which is the heart of the matter.

We have been trying to do this for a number of years. Today, we will.

Last year, again, we made the promise For the People, that we would lower the cost of prescription drugs. We are finally giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices.

Some Republicans say it is un-American for the Secretary to be able to negotiate for lower prices--un-American--then making those lower prices available to the hundreds of millions of Americans with private insurance, too.

We are insisting that American seniors and families shouldn't have to pay more for our medicines than what Big Pharma charges for the same drug overseas. I say that again. H.R. 3 means lowering the cost of medication for Americans with leukemia by more than 70 percent. It means lowering the cost of medication for arthritis, which more than 50 million Americans have, by almost 75 percent. It means lowering the cost of asthma medication for 25 million Americans with this condition from $1,500 to $270.

Yesterday, we had Mr. Riordan testify at our press conference. The cost of his medication for asthma, in his case, was over $60,000 a month. Eighty percent of it was covered by Medicare, but he had to pay over $4,000 a month.

Can you absorb that? $4,000 a month for a drug that you are supposed to take four times a month? He was taking it twice a month, once a month, or not at all, not a healthy thing to do, but reaping big profits for Big Pharma.

Under H.R. 3, some commonly used insulins could cost as little as $400 a year.

With the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019, we put more money back into the pockets of seniors and hardworking families. We drive down insurance premiums, making it easier to afford coverage.

When we lift the immense burden of drug costs on employers, the CBO says American businesses can expect bigger paychecks and salaries for their workers.

H.R. 3 also represents the most transformative expansion of Medicare since its inception.

Now, many people on the other side of the aisle did not support Medicare at its inception, but this is a vast improvement because we are investing more than a half-trillion dollars--that is with a T-R--a half-trillion dollars that we are saving by lowering out-of-control prices and investing in historic new benefits for vision, dental, and hearing for Medicare beneficiaries for the first time.

With these huge savings, we are also investing in new research for new treatments and cures and fighting the opioid epidemic, as the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rose) pointed out, and in the community health centers that deliver quality healthcare to so many Americans.

Advocacy groups representing tens of millions of Americans, seniors, retirees, patients, providers, faith leaders, businesses, and the men and women of labor, and more, support H.R. 3.

AARP wrote to Members of Congress this week and said: ``This important legislation is a bold step toward lowering prescription drug prices and improving Medicare for seniors and families across the country. . . . H.R. 3 will help more Americans afford their prescription drugs and get the care they need to stay healthy.'' They said that in their support of the legislation.

There is every reason in the world for Republicans to join us in passing this bill. The bill delivers on President Trump's promise to the American people. In his words, he said: ``When it comes time to negotiate the cost of drugs, we are going to negotiate like crazy.''

Negotiation is what this bill is about. The Republican substitute is what this bill is not about, and that negotiation is the heart of the matter.

The President also said: ``It's unacceptable that Americans pay vastly more than people in other countries for the exact same drugs, often made in the exact same place. This is wrong; this is unfair; and together, we will stop it.''

Actually, in creating this bill, and working with the committees to do so, we were working with the interests of the White House, the administration, on all of this.

I don't know where it happened, but somewhere along the way, negotiation and the rest fell by the by, and that, again, could be attributed to I don't know what.

Democrats named H.R. 3, as I mentioned, in honor of Chairman Elijah Cummings, our North Star who worked across the aisle and down Pennsylvania Avenue--he met with the President--to lower prescription drug prices.

In honor of Chairman Cummings, and for the sake of the millions of Americans struggling with high prescription drug costs, I urge a strong vote on H.R. 3 to lower drug costs now for all Americans, for the people. I urge an ``aye'' vote.

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