Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. HORSFORD. Madam Chair, I thank my colleague from Michigan for her leadership and for guiding this debate on the floor today.

Madam Chair, I rise to speak in support of H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, named after a man who I have great respect for, who was a mentor of mine, and who fought so hard to hold Big Pharma accountable.

Today is a big day for the American people because we are finally putting their health over the interests of Big Pharma's profits. I am speaking in support of this legislation for the hundreds, if not thousands, of constituents who have shared their stories with me throughout this year. This issue is the single most important issue in my district. I am speaking in support of people like my constituent Mario.

About a year ago, Mario was diagnosed with diabetes and recently sought care for a lesion on his foot that wouldn't heal. Because he couldn't afford the proper medications, Mario ended up losing his toe and had to leave his job. His daughter had to drop out of college to work full time to help pay for Mario's medications.

This is an issue that not only impacts the lives of the patients who are in desperate need of lifesaving medications to stay healthy, but it is also impacting those who love and care for them. It is altering the future of their families.

As Chairman Cummings would say: ``We are better than this.'' We are better than this as a nation, to put the interests of Big Pharma and their profits over the interests of the American people and their health.

For far too long, American families have been forced to pay 4, 5, or even 10 times more for their prescriptions than patients in other countries.

Do my colleagues on the other side think that that is right, that your constituents are subsidizing the healthcare for people across the world when you have people in your own neighborhood who are rationing their medications, making false choices to pay their rent, buy food, or take the necessary medication as prescribed by their doctors? Well, I don't. I don't think that that is a choice the American people should have to make.

Today, we are taking the necessary action to move this legislation forward, and I hope that my colleagues on the other side will work with us and that the President will work with us.

What my constituents tell me is not that they are Democrats, not that they are Republicans, not that they are Democrats, not that they are independents. They tell me that they have diabetes, that they have cancer, that they have heart disease, that they have asthma, that they have HIV and AIDS, that they are dying, and that they need the healthcare that they demand.

Madam Chair, I ask us to pass H.R. 3.

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