Q: Should Congress remove barriers to consumers who want to use online pharmacies? Yes: We must tear down the wall of exorbitant pharmaceutical prices so seniors can afford prescriptions

0 Comments | Insight on the News, July 8, 2003

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates seniors will spend $1.8 trillion on prescription drugs during the next 10 years. With drug prices increasing at approximately 17 percent per year, many seniors are worried about their futures. The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment in 2001 was 1.4 percent. Seniors can do the math. Open markets could save seniors at least 35 percent off the CBO's estimated $1.8 trillion that's $630 billion. Some people do not believe Americans deserve such free-market savings. I do.

When drug companies amass huge profits from taxpayer-funded research, then turn around and whine that they have to charge outrageous prices because the federal government is so hard to deal with, I begrudge them that. They are out of line. They know it, I know it and it is time that the American taxpayers know it.

I believe Congress should refocus the FDA on its fundamental mission of protecting public health, and opening the United States to modern, industrialized markets for FDA-approved prescription drugs from FDA-approved facilities. Americans depend on competitive prices provided by free markets. Congress should act immediately to open up those markets fully and completely.

The drugs under discussion are manufactured in the United States, approved by the FDA, subject to all the laws and regulations of the Canadian government while in Canada and sold by highly regulated and licensed Canadian pharmacies. Even so, the drug companies and the FDA claim that these purchases endanger Americans, yet they have failed to provide any proof of that claim.

The FDA has a duty to ensure that pharmaceuticals are safe and effective. As I stated before, the simple fact is that a prescription which a patient cannot afford to fill is neither safe nor effective.

Modern bar-coded technology together with counterfeit-proof packaging can ensure safety and quality. Open markets will ensure affordability. Americans deserve world-class prescription drugs at world-market prices.

Burton, an Indiana Republican, currently is serving his 11th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee on Wellness and Human Rights.