[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 127 (Monday, September 27, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H8831]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    SENIOR CITIZENS ARE MOST AFFECTED BY HIGH COST OF PRESCRIPTION 
                              MEDICATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maine (Mr. Allen) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about a problem that 
affects millions of seniors across this country and, in fact, millions 
of other people as well. I am talking about those people who do not 
have prescription drug coverage. No insurance for their prescription 
drugs.
  This problem affects seniors more than others, because although 
seniors make up 12 percent of the population, they buy 33 percent of 
all prescription drugs. And studies done in my district in Maine and, 
indeed, around the country, in approximately 65 to 70 districts, have 
shown, on average, that seniors pay twice as much for their 
prescription medications as the drug companies' favored customers.
  Well, who are the favored customers? The favored customers are HMOs, 
big hospitals and, in fact, the Federal Government, buying either for 
those who are on Medicare or for veterans, who get their drugs through 
the Veterans Administration. That price discrimination has to stop. 
That price discrimination is making it impossible for many seniors to 
take the drugs that their doctors tell them they have to take.
  What we have in this country now is a situation where many seniors 
are having to choose between food on the table, the electric bill, the 
rent, and taking the prescription drugs that their doctors have given 
them. So some people are taking one pill out of three. Some people are 
not taking their prescription medications at all.
  I have had a couple of women write to me and say, I do not want my 
husband to know, but I am not taking my prescription medication because 
he is sicker than I am and we cannot both afford to take our 
medications. That should not happen in this country, but it happens 
because under Medicare there is no coverage for prescription drugs.
  In fact, 37 percent of all seniors have no coverage at all for their 
prescription drugs. Twenty-eight percent have some form of private 
coverage through a retiree plan, but that number is declining and will 
decline further. About 8 percent have coverage through medigap, but 
medigap policies are expensive and often are really not worth the 
coverage. Seventeen percent have coverage under Medicare managed care. 
But, frankly, the managed care prescription drug benefits are being cut 
back, people are being dropped from the rolls, and the benefit, where 
it still exists, is more expensive than it used to be.
  Now, what is happening? I have a bill that would lower the cost of 
prescription drugs for the elderly. It is H.R. 664, called the 
Prescription Drug Fairness For Seniors Act. It does not cost the 
Federal Government any significant amount of money and creates no new 
bureaucracy, but it would reduce the prices by as much as 40 percent.
  There are those out there attacking both my discount plan and the 
President's plan for a prescription drug benefit under Medicare. There 
are ads. This is a picture of Flo. Flo is appearing in newspaper ads 
and she is also appearing in television ads. Who is paying for the ads 
that Flo brings? Well, something called Citizens for Better Medicare. 
Well, who are Citizens for Better Medicare? What a great name. It is 
the pharmaceutical industry primarily. The drug manufacturers. What 
they are telling us all is that we need to keep the government out of 
the medicine cabinet, but in fact what they are really trying to do is 
make sure that their profits continue.
  This is the most profitable industry in the country, and it spends 
its money, millions of dollars, $30 million, to try to persuade people 
that what they really want is a program that will continue the high 
prices that people pay for Medicare.
  Now, Flo, of course, is a fake. She is an actress. She is not a real 
person. There are lots of real people in my district who are having 
trouble paying for their prescription drugs, but Flo is one of the 28 
percent, arguably, who actually have prescription drug coverage.

                              {time}  2000

  But she feels no compunction, her pharmaceutical manufacturer 
sponsors feel no compunction in trying to make sure that the 37 percent 
with no coverage at all do not get any further breaks. It is 
outrageous.
  There is price discrimination going on in this industry against 
seniors right now. It needs to stop. Flo says, ``We don't want big 
government in our medicine cabinet.'' But without the Food and Drug 
Administration, we could not be sure that the drugs in the medicine 
cabinet are safe and effective. Without the government, people on 
Medicaid would have no drugs in the medicine cabinet at all. So the 
poorer people in this country are getting their prescription drugs paid 
for but people who are just above the poverty line are not. They are 
the people who often have several hundred dollars a month in 
prescription drug costs and they cannot do it.
  We need to pass H.R. 664, the Prescription Drug Fairness for Seniors 
Act. We need to resist what Flo is trying to say. We need to stop big 
money in politics.

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