Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Madam President, over in the House today, the Ways and Means Committee is marking up Speaker Pelosi's drug bill, the latest installment in Democrats' campaign for government-run healthcare.

Like Democrats' other plan for government takeover of healthcare, the so-called Medicare for All vote, the Pelosi drug bill will ultimately leave Americans worse off when it comes to access to care.

There is no question that the American healthcare system isn't perfect. High drug costs are a problem, and one in four seniors reports difficulty affording medications. Stories of patients being forced to ration pills or abandon their prescriptions at the pharmacy counter are unacceptable, but upending the entire American healthcare system is not the answer.

A strong majority of Americans are happy with their health insurance coverage and the quality of the healthcare they receive. Americans have access to treatments that individuals in other countries simply don't have access to. Take cancer drugs, for example. Between 2011 and 2018, 82 new cancer drugs became available. U.S. patients have access to 96 percent of those new drugs. In Germany, by contrast, patients have access to just 73 percent of those new cancer drugs. In France, it is just 66 percent, and in Japan, patients have access to only 54 percent of these new cancer drugs. In other words, Japanese patients are missing out on access to roughly half of the new cancer drugs that emerged between 2011 and 2018.

So why do Americans have such tremendous access to new drugs while other countries trail behind? Because the U.S. Government doesn't dictate drug prices or drug coverage. That is also the reason American companies lead the world in medical innovation.

Back in 1986, investment in drug research by European drug companies exceeded U.S. investment by approximately 24 percent, but all of that changed--all of that changed--when European governments stepped in and started imposing price controls.

Today, European investment in drug research and development is almost 40 percent lower than U.S. investment. It was 24 percent higher in 1968, and, today, it is 40 percent lower.

Speaker Pelosi's bill would start the process of destroying the system that has produced so much access and innovation for American patients. Her legislation would impose government price controls on as many as 250 medications.

If progressives in her caucus have their way, the bill would impose government price controls on all medications. Either way, the result is likely to look much the same as we have seen before--reduced access to lifesaving treatments and substantially reduced investment for the prescription drug breakthroughs of the future.

Under the Pelosi bill, Americans could look forward to a future where we might be the ones losing out on a quarter or more of the new cancer drugs that are coming to market.

There is no question that we need to find solutions to drive down drug costs, but the answer to the problem of high drug costs is not to destroy the system that has given American patients access to so many new cures and treatments.

Republicans want to develop bipartisan legislation focused on lowering prescription drug costs without--without--destroying the American system of access and innovation.

The Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and the Senate Judiciary Committee have spent a lot of time this year working on this issue, and work on truly bipartisan solutions remains ongoing.

Earlier this year, House committees advanced drug pricing legislation on a bipartisan basis, but, unfortunately, House Democrats have made it clear that they are more interested in playing politics than in cooperating on legislation to address the challenges that are facing American families.

Democrats know that the Pelosi drug bill has no chance of passing the Senate, but they have chosen to pursue this socialist fantasy instead of working with Republicans to develop a bipartisan prescription drug bill that isn't just price controls and that might actually go somewhere.

Like the Democrats' larger socialist fantasy, Medicare for All, the Pelosi drug bill will ultimately hurt the very people it is supposed to help, in this case, by restricting their access to lifesaving drugs and future prescription drug innovations. The Pelosi drug bill is a bad prescription for the American people.

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, there are Members who object to this. They can't be here to object on their own behalf.

I say to the Senator from Minnesota that, like her, I also want to do everything we can to ensure that our elections are fair and transparent in this country. I think there are a number of solutions, as she pointed out, that are out there. I think there is a lot of good work that is being done and can be done, hopefully, on a bipartisan basis. As a former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, I have worked with the Senator from Minnesota on a number of issues where we have been able to fashion solutions that are bipartisan in nature. I suspect work on this will continue.

As I mentioned, we have a couple of Members on our side who do have objections to the bill in its current form or the process of trying to do it this way. I do think there is a way in which we can come together and work toward solutions that will help do what I think all of us have as an objective, and that is to keep our election process in this country fair and transparent.

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Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson).

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