Senator Purcell: Thank you very much, Mr. President. My name is Bill Purcell. I'm one of those primary care doctors you were talking about, a pediatrician. I also have a little job in the North Carolina Senate. (Laughter.) But I can see in my practice a patient and make a correct diagnosis and prescribe the right medicine, but if a patient can't afford the medicine, they don't get treatment. What can we do about the high cost of prescription drugs in America? (Applause.)
President Obama: Since I gave a very long answer on the last one, I'll try to keep this one short. We pay 77 percent more for prescription drugs in America than any other country does -- 77 percent more than any other country. Now, if you talk to the pharmaceutical industry, they'll say, well, a lot of the research and development is done in this country, and that's how we're developing the great new drugs. That accounts for maybe 20 to 30 percent of the difference in the cost. The rest of it has to do with marketing. It has to do with the fact that basically the pharmaceutical industry can get away with it.
And what happened when the prescription drug bill was passed several years ago under Medicare, they specifically prohibited you -- they prohibited Medicare from negotiating with the drug companies for the cheapest available price on drugs; specifically said you cannot negotiate. So what we've said is, in this reform process, we are going to turn that around. (Applause.)
And to the pharmaceutical industry's credit, they have sat down and started negotiating and they've already said -- they've already put $80 billion in deep discounts and rebates on the table that would help to close the so-called doughnut hole that a lot of seniors are suffering under Medicare. They've already committed to that. That would cut the costs of the doughnut hole in about half. So that's a significant savings. I think we can obtain more savings.
One other thing that's being debated right now on Capitol Hill, though, that people need to keep an eye on -- one of the way to lower prescription drug costs is to move to generics. And the problem right now is, is that the drug companies want, after they've come up with a drug, they want to keep that patent for 12 years. And there's a debate about can we lower that to seven years before it goes generic so that people can enjoy lower prices on those drugs.
Those are some of the debates that will be taking place alongside the health care reform debate. But overall, there's no reason why we should not be able to at least pay in the ballpark of what other countries are paying for the exact same drug, and that will be a major focus in this health care reform legislation. (Applause.)
You can find the full transcript of the town hall meeting
here.