[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 156 (Monday, November 8, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14335-S14337]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE SPICE ACT

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, the newspapers of the Nation this weekend 
were filled with stories about the politics of prescription drug 
coverage for the Nation's elderly. One poll after another said that the 
question of covering prescription drugs for seniors was one of the top 
three concerns of millions of Americans--not just seniors, but people 
of all ages. And then, in addition to all the polls and surveys that 
were published this weekend, some of our most distinguished political 
journalists were out across the country interviewing people in America 
asking them what they thought about Congress' handling of the 
prescription drug issue. And one interview after another essentially 
has seniors and families responding that they could not figure out why 
the Congress in Washington, DC, could not tackle this issue in a 
bipartisan way.
  I remember one of the interviewees in particular, in effect, saying, 
``What are they so busy fussing about in Washington, DC, that they 
can't find the time to deal with an issue so important to millions of 
older people?'' I think that person who got interviewed pretty much 
summed it up.
  I have been coming up to the floor of the Senate over the last 2 or 3 
weeks in an effort to try to bring folks' attention, both in the Senate 
and in our country, that there is bipartisan legislation to cover the 
question of prescription drugs for older people, and to talk about why 
it is so important. As part of that effort, as you can see in the 
poster next to me, I have been urging that seniors send in copies of 
their prescription drug bills--actually send in copies of their 
prescription drug bills to those of us in the Senate in Washington, DC. 
I have been getting a great many of these bills. I have been coming to 
the floor on a number of occasions and actually reading from these 
bills because I think it helps to drive home what we saw in the 
newspapers all across the country this weekend, and that is that we 
have to come up with a bipartisan plan to meet these needs of 
vulnerable elderly people.
  So tonight I am going to read from some of the letters that I am 
receiving from older people at home in Oregon. Four letters in 
particular struck me as particularly compelling in recent days. I have 
heard from folks in North Bend, Redmond, Roseburg, and Milwaukie in the 
metropolitan area of our State. All of them essentially make the same 
kind of case, and that is that so many seniors are walking on an 
economic tightrope. They are balancing food costs against the fuel 
costs and the fuel costs against their medical bills. With so many 
being unable to afford their prescriptions, they are writing and saying 
they can't afford to wait for another election, the 2000 election, to 
resolve this issue. They have been reading these articles with Members 
of Congress saying that it is too complicated to tackle now. It is too 
difficult to get a consensus. I just don't think that is the case.
  There is a bipartisan bill now before the U.S. Senate. It is one that 
was drafted by the distinguished senior Senator from Maine, Olympia 
Snowe, and myself. We got 54 votes for it on the floor of the Senate. A 
majority of Members of the Senate voted in a specific way to fund the 
prescription drug benefit for the Nation's older people. So it is just 
not right to say that there is no consensus, there is no way to bring 
Senators of both political parties together on this issue. It is just 
factually wrong. Fifty-four Members of the

[[Page S14336]]

Senate have said that they would vote for a specific approach to 
funding a drug benefit for the Nation's older people, and it was a 
bipartisan vote. It wasn't done in the dead of night. It was part of 
the budget debate. A majority in the Senate is now on record.
  It is a plan that I think unleashes the forces of the marketplace. It 
is built on the model from which Members of Congress get their health 
care, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan. It is called the 
SPICE Program, the Senior Prescription Insurance Coverage Equity Act. 
It gives seniors the kind of bargaining power that some of these big 
purchasers such as the health maintenance organizations have.
  Right now, seniors with prescriptions get hit by sort of a double 
whammy.
  First, Medicare doesn't cover prescriptions. It hasn't since the 
program began in 1965.
  Second, when a senior citizen walks into a drugstore, walks into 
their neighborhood pharmacy, in effect that senior has to pay a premium 
for their prescription drugs because the big buyers actually get 
discounts.
  You have these health care plans. You have health maintenance 
organizations. You have the big buyers going out and negotiating 
discounts. Then senior citizens walk into the pharmacy in their 
community in effect having to pay a premium and in effect subsidizing 
the big buyers in town who get these discounts.
  I am often asked whether our country can afford to cover prescription 
drugs for the Nation's older people. My response is that America can't 
afford not to cover these prescription drugs because so many of these 
drugs at this time are essentially ones that help keep older people 
well. They help keep them healthy--lower blood pressure, deal with 
cholesterol problems--and keep seniors from getting sick and landing in 
the hospital where they need very expensive services from what is 
called the Part A program of Medicare, the hospital institutional part.
  I have cited on several occasions on the floor of the Senate 
anticoagulant drugs because I think they best illustrate how serious 
the problem is and why it needs a bipartisan solution along the lines 
of the Snowe-Wyden bill. It makes some sense. These anticoagulant drugs 
might cost in the vicinity of $1,000 a year to cover the needs of an 
older person. But if with anticoagulant medicine we can prevent this 
debilitating injury, that could save in the vicinity of $100,000. That 
would be expenses incurred when an older person suffers a stroke.
  Think of that: $1,000 for an anticoagulant medicine, and as a result 
of a senior being able to afford that, very often that person can stay 
healthy and keep from being struck by debilitating stroke and incurring 
$100,000 in expenses that would come about as a result of that illness.
  I hope seniors will continue to write to me and to other Members of 
the Senate, as this poster says. We hope they will send us copies of 
their prescription drug bills and actually send copies of how they are 
affected to each of us here in the Senate in Washington, DC.
  I want to take just a minute or two now to read from some of the 
letters I have received in the last few days.
  One of the first is a letter I received from an older couple in North 
Bend. The spouse is 73. Her husband is 77. They report that they have 
about $18,000 a year in Social Security income and spend about $2,000 
of it on their prescription drugs. They have a Blue Cross plan. It 
doesn't cover any of their prescriptions--none of them.
  I think this is really sort of typical of what I have been hearing 
from senior citizens across our State.
  Here is a copy of what these bills look like for folks who are 
thinking about sending them to us. This one comes from North Bend, OR. 
It comes from the Safeway pharmacy there in North Bend. An older couple 
points out in a letter to me that they simply are not going to be able 
to afford what they are told is going to be the next increase. They are 
told that next month their bills are going to go up again on top of 
what I have cited they are having to pay for over-the-counter 
medications as well. Compared to some of their friends, they are not 
what they call ``pill takers.'' With an income of $18,000 a year, think 
of having to spend about $2,000 of it on prescription drugs, and that 
doesn't even count for what they spend on over-the-counter medications. 
Their bills are going up again next month.
  These are the kinds of people to whom I think the Senate ought to be 
listening.
  Another letter I received in the last few days comes from an older 
couple in Redmond. They sent me this bill for the month of October. 
Just for the month of October, colleagues who maybe listening in--$282 
a month just for the month of October from an older couple in Redmond. 
They went to the Rite-Aid Pharmacy in a mall in Redmond. They are faced 
now with the prospect of having to spend $282 a month all year round on 
their prescriptions, and, suffice it to say, they too are asking why it 
is that the Congress, and the Senate specifically, isn't being 
responsive. Here is a third bill I received in the last few days. This 
is from an older woman who is spending close to $300 a month on her 
prescription drugs at the Wal-Mart in Roseburg.
  This is again the kind of real-life case to which I think the Senate 
ought to be paying attention. They are just sending us now copies of 
their bills. These are not drugs that are uncommon. Glucophage, for 
example, for a lot of seniors is an essential medicine because it helps 
them with their diabetes. When senior citizens can't afford to pay for 
a prescription for glucophage, they are going to suffer some very 
serious health problems as a result.
  I cited examples at the end of last week.
  There are seniors at home in Oregon who have prescriptions their 
doctor wrote out for drugs such as that, and they simply could not 
afford to have them filled. They were hanging on to the prescription 
hoping that sometime down the road they would get the funds to be able 
to afford their prescriptions.
  That is the kind of case we are hearing about from the Nation's older 
people.
  I hope folks who are listening in tonight will see, as this poster 
says, that we hope to hear from more of them. We would like for them, 
as this poster says, to send copies of their prescription drug bills 
directly to us in the Senate in Washington, DC.
  I intend to keep coming to the floor of this body and going through 
some of these cases in the hopes that this can pique the conscience of 
the Senate for bipartisan action.
  Finally, tonight I have one other bill that struck me as so poignant 
and really summing it up. It comes from an older man who sends his 
wife's mother's bill because she is 91 and she is spending about $400 
per month on prescription medicines. The letter says this is outrageous 
for a 91-year-old person, a person who is on a fixed income, to have to 
pay. She is 91 years old. The list goes on for pages.
  I am going to wrap up tonight by saying it would be one thing if you 
couldn't bring Senators together around an important issue and simply 
not find any consensus whatsoever.
  That is not the case with respect to the Snowe-Wyden legislation. The 
senior Senator from Maine and I have teamed up on a bill that is 
modeled after the kind of health care Members of the United States 
Senate receive.
  Mr. President, 54 Members of the Senate, as part of the budget 
debate, said they would vote for a way to pay for the plan. We are 
seeing these polls and interviews along the lines of what I cited. 
Newspapers were filled this weekend with folks saying, why can't the 
Senate act? That is the question: Why can't the Senate act when there 
is a bipartisan bill?
  The SPICE legislation, the Senior Prescription Insurance Coverage 
Equity Act, is legislation I believe can move forward because it is 
bipartisan. Certainly, our colleagues have other ideas about how to 
proceed. Senator Snowe and I are anxious to hear from them with respect 
to their approach.
  What is important is that the Senate stop ducking this issue. The 
Senate ought to say we are now going to recognize how serious these 
concerns of the Nation's older people are and not just put them off and 
say it is too complicated to deal with now and we will talk about it in 
2001, but with a year to go until election, we ought to roll up our 
sleeves and come up with a bipartisan plan to address these needs.
  Until that time, I hope seniors will continue to send copies of their 
prescription drug bills to each Senator. I

[[Page S14337]]

am particularly anxious to have them. Send them to our offices in 
Washington, DC. I will keep coming to the floor of this body, reading 
from letters from folks, including this 91-year-old who cannot afford 
next month's increase in prescription drugs, folks who cannot pay for 
their diabetes medicine and are likely to get much sicker as a result. 
I intend to keep coming to the floor of this body, reading from those 
letters, and doing everything I can to try to bring the Senate together 
around bipartisan legislation to meet the needs of our elderly.
  The approach behind the Snowe-Wyden legislation does not involve 
price controls. We have a lot of Senators legitimately concerned about 
that. It is not a one-size-fits-all Federal regime. It is a model based 
on something we all know well. That is the Federal Employees Health 
Benefits Plan. In fact, the SPICE Program that Senator Snowe and I have 
drafted is a senior citizens version of the Federal Employees Health 
Benefits Plan. We are convinced it can work for the Nation's older 
people.
  I hope we will not pass up this opportunity to address these 
heartfelt concerns that seniors are passing on. I hope we will not say 
this issue is too complicated for the Senate to act. We may be leaving 
in a few days, but there will be an opportunity in the days ahead to 
bring Senators of both political parties together and fashion 
legislation that is responsive to the country's older people. I am 
convinced older people cannot afford to wait another year, wait another 
year for politicking and debates to go forward. Certainly, based on the 
kinds of bills, as the bill I read from, including the 91-year-old 
senior spending $400 a month, she cannot afford to wait, at 91, for 
another year of electioneering. I believe when there is a bipartisan 
bill before the Senate, she shouldn't have to wait.
  I will continue to read from these letters. I hope folks will send 
copies of their prescription drug bills. We need to act on this matter. 
We saw again this weekend how important it is to the American people. I 
will be coming back to this floor again and again and again until we 
get bipartisan action on this urgent matter for millions of the 
Nation's older people.
  I yield the floor.

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