Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[Rick Faurot]

Kerry Woos Seniors, Vows Cure for High Drug Costs
Wed Aug 11, 2004 03:39 PM ET

By Patricia Wilson
HENDERSON, Nev. (Reuters) - Democrat John Kerry challenged President Bush on Wednesday to "get out of the way" of Americans who want to import cheaper drugs from Canada and courted the critical senior vote by vowing to provide fair and affordable health care.

"Dr. Kerry is here to cure you all," the Massachusetts senator joked as he read the list prices of four drugs commonly used by U.S. seniors who are paying up to three and four times more than their Canadian counterparts.

"Why should Canadians just across the border there be able to buy those drugs and you're paying the top dollar all across the board?" Kerry asked invited guests at the Valley View Recreation Center in Henderson, one of Nevada's fastest growing cities.

"Drug companies want to tell you it's so we can do the research, it's what the market will bear and so on and so forth," he said. "This isn't fair competition, it's a monopoly and it's been put in place by George Bush and his friends and it's costing you a whole bunch of extra money and it's wrong."

The Democratic presidential nominee who will face Bush in the Nov. 2 election called for a "real" prescription drug benefit, not a "$139 billion windfall profit for drug companies" and said he would not "monkey" with Social Security by talking about privatizing it, raising the retirement age or cutting benefits.

"I call on the president to do what he should have done in the first place," Kerry said. "I call on the president to get out of the way of Americans being able to import drugs from Canada at a lower price."

Pointing out that Republicans like Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was campaigning with Bush on Wednesday, were also in favor of allowing it, Kerry charged:

"But George Bush stood in the way of that. George Bush stood right there and said ... 'We're going to help the drug companies get great big windfalls'."