The publication is reproduced in full below:
ALLOW MEDICARE TO NEGOTIATE DRUG PRICES
(Ms. WILD asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Ms. WILD. Mr. Speaker, for far too long, the pharmaceutical industry has dictated who in America has access to the medicines they need for their health and well-being and who doesn't, leaving millions of Americans in districts like mine to make impossible choices about their healthcare.
Already this year, drug companies have hiked the prices of 1,100 prescription drugs, more than 90 percent of which were above the rate of inflation. The largest single price hike for a prescription drug this month was nearly 16 percent, while inflation has risen slightly more than 2 percent.
Big Pharma's bottom line should never be more important than the health of my constituents in the Seventh District of Pennsylvania or the American people at large.
That is why I recently organized a letter signed by 14 of my colleagues, asking our leaders to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices and include that language in the budget reconciliation bill currently being negotiated.
Here is the truth: Giving Medicare the power to negotiate would lower the cost of prescription drugs for hardworking families so that everyone has access to the medicines they need. It would also result in nearly half a trillion dollars in savings for taxpayers, money that we can invest in making healthcare more affordable for even more people.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 164
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