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Congress could significantly lower the pharmaceutical costs for all Medicare recipients today with one simple act. The federal government has already negotiated significantly reduced pharmaceutical rates that are used by the VA, qualifying hospitals and Community Health Centers. Section 340B of the Public Health Service Act requires pharmaceutical manufacturers participating in Medicaid to sell outpatient drugs at discounted prices to healthcare organizations that care for many uninsured and low-income patients. Congress can mandate Medicare patient eligibility for a 340 B medication discount now instead of playing their current woe is me game. The pharmaceutical industry gouges the American public on the pretense that new drugs wouldn’t be developed if they can’t maintain their price gouging. So why do they sell their drugs to other countries at a fraction of the cost they charge the American public? Are we that big a sucker to fall for this line of baloney? Please go to Pharmacychecker.com and compare Canadian drug pricing to US pricing to see the magnitude of the problem. Do you think the Canadian companies are selling the same drugs at a loss? The other boogeyman that the drug industry tries to scare you with is that there wouldn’t be any research for new drugs if they can’t have the huge profits. Most of the drug research is carried out in major universities. If we expanded funding for this kind of research in the universities and paid companies to manufacture the proven products we would all be far better off.