US senator calls Canada "parasitic"

[dustinm]

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/09/30/11215771-cp.html

WASHINGTON - An American legislator called Canada "parasitic" on Wednesday for siphoning U.S. dollars to Canada with low prescription drug prices while his country does "all the innovation."

"One of the things that has troubled me greatly about our system is the fact that we pay more for pharmaceuticals and devices than other countries, and yet it's not really our country so much that's the problem, it's the parasitic relationship that Canada and France and other countries have towards us," the Tennessee lawmaker told Carolyn Bennett.

"Meaning that you set prices and unfortunately all the innovation, all the technological breakthroughs, just about, take place in our country ... you benefit from us and we pay for that and I resent that."

Bennett, a family doctor and one-time minister of state for public health, was one of five people testifying before the Senate special committee on aging. The panel, chaired by Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl and including newly minted Sen. Al Franken, was examining how successful health-care systems keep their costs low while maintaining quality care.

[The Canadian MP] seemed puzzled by Corker's remarks, reminding him that drug pricing was a global concern, not part of a plot by Canada.

"It's the drug companies, sir, and they're multinational - it's nothing about the United States of America," she told him.

Thoughts?

 

[ModlrMike]

I wouldn't get too worked up about it. It appears that US legislators knowledge of Canada is inversely proportionate to the distance their home state is from the border.

 

[Dennis Ruhl]

Thoughts?

I still think of how I can get my hands on some of these parasitic priced drugs.

There was a compromise between the drug companies and the federal government.  Patent protection was extended for the drug companies and prices reviewed by the government.  The US government is unique among developed countries in not reviewing prices.  That's hardly our problem.

 

[GAP]

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn....the state that offers almost tax free status to pharmaceutical companies, will blame anybody that impacts on his income...he's been in big pharma's pocket from the get go and everybody knows it....

 

[Fishbone Jones]

They drag this one out every couple of years after they've gone through the regular list of excuses until they have nothing but their own ineptitude and graft to blame.

Fart in a windstorm.

 

[mariomike]

"It's the parasitic relationship that Canada and France and other countries have towards us."

How about the parasitic relationship Canada has had with American hippies, draft dodgers and deserters?

 

[the 48th regulator]

The character has been Anti-Canadian for quite some time.  It is part of his attacks towards Obama's proposed move towards "Canadian Styeled" healthcare.

Apparently we are like Bulgaria, in his McCarthyism mentality....

http://corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=NewsRoom.NewsReleases&ContentRecord_id=76DEEC2A-AE59-4A85-8CD2-96BC7F75D544

I also hope the final drug importation bill will focus on giving consumers the best possible information about the drugs they are buying, particularly information about which country produced their prescription drugs. When you go to a pharmacy you have a right to know whether the medicine you're buying is from our country or Canada or Bulgaria.

Yes, the old American made is better.  It is part of his schlock...


dileas

tess

 

[mariomike]

It is part of his attacks towards Obama's proposed move towards "Canadian Styeled" healthcare.

"Jack Webb Schools Barack Obama on Healthcare":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4r6YCUtxfs

 

[medicineman]

Even more ironic would be when he finds out how many of those scientists developing those drugs are probably Canadians that were siphoned south with large amounts of greenbacks  .

MM

 

[VIChris]

If he's upset at how cheap drugs are up here, he'd [hopefully] just keel over and croak if he saw the pricing south of the States.