Sen. Byron Dorgan toured the new Grand Forks Veteran Affairs Community-Based Outreach Clinic and reassured veterans that he will not support any health care reform that reduces or diminishes health care service to military veterans.
He also promoted legislation he and 29 other Senate bipartisan co-sponsors will introduce that would force pharmaceutical companies to lower the costs of prescription drugs in the United States.
"No one knows for sure what the final outcome of this health care reform bill will be, but one thing is certain," he said. "I will not support legislation that undermines health care for veterans or the VA system."
The prescription drug legislation, the "Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act," likely will be offered as an amendment to the Senate's health care reform bill.
Among the co-sponsors are Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
ADVERTISEMENT
Dorgan, D-N.D., used prescription drug posters to illustrate drug price disparities between the United States and Canada. A 20-milligram, 90-day supply of cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor costs three times more in the United States than in Canada. A similar prescription for another cholesterol drug, Zocor, is twice as expensive in the U.S. as in Canada.
"Prices of prescription drugs are some of the fastest-growing areas of health care costs," Dorgan said. "A lot of people take a lot of prescription drugs these days that can keep them out of an acute-care bed. ... The fact is the price of those prescription drugs is going up like an elevator in a tall building. And we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. It's not even close."
Dorgan praised the new VA clinic in Grand Forks, which opened in September. More than 1,200 veterans have registered as patients.
It's the ninth VA Outpatient Clinic to open in North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. The 10th is expected to open in Devils Lake in 2010.
Other VA clinics are in Jamestown, Bismarck, Dickinson, Williston, Minot and Grafton, N.D., as well as in Bemidji and Fergus Falls, Minn.
VA officials had estimated the clinic to have as many as 1,400 patients in the first year and grow to about 2,000, with more than 5,500 patient visits annually within two years.
Dorgan also said the nation's health care system needs an electronic medical records system, similar to the one that now connects all VA medical facilities in the country.
In a question-and-answer period, Dorgan said he supports a public option in the health care reform debate, "providing it is done the right way," he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
"There are dozens of ways you can construct it," he said. "I don't want to create a public option that would move the bulk of the American people into a public option plan. But I do think a public option, constructed properly, that would have fair competition for the insurance companies, is a reasonable thing."
While public opinion polls nationwide show widespread support for a public option in health care reform, Dorgan said his constituents have strong feelings on both sides of the issue.
"There's nothing on health care where you have an avalanche of mail on one side of the issue," Dorgan said. "The reason for that is that there isn't any specific piece of legislation yet.
"We do know that, with health care, it's very personal to everybody, and it's a very controversial topic. Most people feel that they want good health care. Anything that's done, they want it to enhance the delivery of good health care. At the same time, they're worried about having to pay the premiums that are escalating every year, often at double-digit percentage premium increases."
Reach Bonham at (701) 780-1110; (800) 477-6572, ext. 110; or send e-mail to kbonham@gfherald.com .
