Senator Merkley covered a number of issues in his town hall in The Dalles. If you missed the event, you can listen to it by clicking the grey podcast bar below.
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley held his second town hall in The Dalles this year today at the Readiness Center. Following brief remarks, he answered a number of questions from the audience. One of the topics was the high cost of pharmaceuticals in this country. Merkley was blunt in his appraisal:
“We are ripped off on drug prices. We pay sometimes fifty percent, twice as much, and sometimes 10 times as much as people in other countries. And it comes down to this: Every other developed country, they negotiate with the companies over the price. We do not. We are banned by law from doing that. It’s a law we’re trying to change, but we’re banned from doing it. And it says something about the power of the pharmaceutical industry that we’re in this situation.”
The senator said that the Veterans Administration is allowed to negotiate with the drug companies, and on average pay half the price as the rest of the US.
One person asked about investor groups driving up home prices, the Senator replied:
“I kept hearing from folks that they’re going out and shopping for a house and they’re being told there are folks representing hedge funds that are there with all cash offers. So I’ve introduced a bill, and basically it says hedge funds cannot be in the business of residential houses, that houses should be homes for families, not a profit center for Wall Street.”
He noted that this had the effect of driving up rental prices as well.