[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 23, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S751-S753]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS AFFORDABILITY
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, for many months now I and other Members of
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the Senate have been coming to the floor of this body to talk about the
need for prescription drug coverage for our older people under
Medicare.
We have been going through case histories of stories we have been
hearing from our States. I have been describing the many older people I
am hearing from in Oregon where after they are finished paying their
prescription drug bill, they only have a couple hundred dollars for the
rest of the month to live on.
I talked about instances where older people at home in Oregon are
actually breaking their Lipitor pills. Lipitor is an important
cholesterol-lowering drug. A lot of the seniors at home in Oregon can't
afford to take these vital medicines, and they are actually having to
break them in half in order to try to meet their health care needs. It
is just outrageous to think that in a country as rich and as powerful
and good as ours so many of our seniors walk on this economic
tightrope.
I have come to the floor repeatedly over the last few months to talk
about the need for bipartisan legislation that would address the needs
of older people and secure important Medicare coverage for them.
I believe there is now genuine interest in reconciling the several
bills before the Senate on this issue and a real opportunity to enact
good legislation that can generate overwhelming support in this body
and get the senior citizens of this country the help they need.
I have spoken, for example, with the Democratic leader, Senator
Daschle, several times this week on this subject. He is very interested
in bringing Senators with varying approaches on this issue together so
we find the common ground to get help for older people.
I especially want to praise my colleague from Maine, our friend,
Senator Snowe. She and I have worked together for 14 months now--for
more than a year starting with the budget resolution last year--to come
up with a bipartisan plan to address this enormous need of older
people.
Before I describe some of the new cases we are getting from seniors
across the country, I will talk about some areas where I think there is
common ground, the common ground I have heard Senator Daschle and
others talking about in recent days. For example, I think Senators
overwhelmingly believe there ought to be a significant role for
marketplace forces in the delivery of this benefit. Certainly we differ
about the details. We recognize that. I will not have the last word on
this subject. I think virtually all Senators believe there ought to be
a significant role for marketplace forces on this issue.
Second, I think there is overwhelming support for the proposition
that this program ought to be a voluntary program. Senators and others
have learned the lesson from the catastrophic care bill when a lot of
the older people in this country said: This is something I am already
getting; I don't want it required; I think my money can be spent better
elsewhere.
This time, I see Senators with varying political philosophies
desiring to make sure this benefit is voluntary.
I think Senators overwhelmingly are interested in making sure this
prescription drug coverage for older people is consistent with long-
term Medicare reform. Many want to have comprehensive Medicare reform
in this session of Congress. It may still be doable. I prefer going
that route. If it is not possible to have comprehensive Medicare
reform, I can tell Members that Senator Snowe and I have teamed up over
the last several months in an effort to make sure the prescription drug
coverage program is consistent with long-term Medicare reform.
Finally, we want to make sure this benefit is adequately funded. In
the last session of Congress, 54 Members of the Senate voted for the
Snowe-Wyden amendment with respect to funding. We brought together
Senator Wellstone, Senator Abraham, Senator Kennedy, Senator Santorum,
Senators of all political philosophies of both political parties. Mr.
President, 54 voted for allocating dollars for a prescription drug
program. There is an opportunity now to find the common ground.
I want to describe a few of the accounts I have heard from at home
that made it clear to me why it is so important that Senators come
together and enact this program for the elderly. I heard recently from
an elderly woman in Deschutes County in central Oregon. She is 83 years
old; she lives at her sister's. She and her 79-year-old husband take 12
drugs to cover diabetes, hypertension, and a variety of ailments. Their
sole source of income is Social Security. They spend nearly 25 percent
of their income now on prescription drugs.
In Clatsop County, a retired couple in their seventies from
Warrenton, OR, is spending $450 a month on prescription drugs. If they
have another increase in their supplemental insurance--and we all know
the vast majority of seniors have these supplemental policies, and we
all know in almost every instance they go up--this older couple has
told me they will have to stop taking their medication altogether.
An older woman in Coos County, aged 75, getting by on only $813 a
month, is spending well over $200 of that $800 on prescription
medicine.
I could go on with these cases. I have done that on more than 20
occasions in the last few months on the floor of the Senate, trying
continually to bring before the body 3 or 4 cases that highlight how
great the need is and how important it is we address this issue.
I believe the President of the United States wants this issue
addressed in a bipartisan way. I have talked with him about this
subject. He recognizes how urgent it is that seniors get this coverage.
I think he made it clear in the State of the Union Address he wants to
work with Members of Congress of both political parties to get this
done.
We have accomplished a great deal in the last 14 months. Fourteen
months ago when Senator Snowe and I brought this issue to the Budget
Committee, I think we were essentially looked at as well-meaning souls
but people who just did not have much of a prospect of seeing this go
forward. Now we see the issue of prescription drug coverage as one of
the two or three most pressing domestic issues. The American people are
disgusted.
Our job now--and I commend Senator Daschle, but I know there are a
number of colleagues on the other side of the aisle who feel the same
way--is to reconcile these various bills. We want to make sure we build
on private health insurance.
There has been a lot of talk in the last few days about whether
private health insurance companies would be interested in this program.
Having talked with them at home in Oregon, they are definitely going to
be interested in this program because what we envisage doing, what
essentially all the bills envisage doing, is having the Government pick
up the prescription drug portion of a senior's private health insurance
program. That is what is going to go on here. We will not set up new
bureaucracies and redtape. We will be looking at an effort to have this
program pick up the prescription drug portion of a senior's private
health insurance. We want to use marketplace forces to the greatest
possible extent. We want older people to have bargaining power in the
marketplace.
Right now, Medicare does not cover prescriptions, but the older
person who walks into a pharmacy perhaps in Rhode Island, Oregon, or
any other part of the country and does not have prescription drug
coverage, in effect, has to subsidize the big buyers of prescription
medicine. If, for example, you are a younger worker and have the good
fortune of having a company health plan that covers prescription drugs,
that company plan can go out and negotiate a discount. The senior,
without any coverage, walks into the pharmacy, doesn't get that same
rate, and in effect has to actually subsidize those who do have the
good fortune of having a health plan where they can have some real
bargaining power. That is not right. Vulnerable seniors deserve a fair
shake. They deserve to be able to secure their medicine at an
affordable price.
I believe the cases I brought to the floor of the Senate tonight
again show how urgent the need is for this benefit. I believe there are
colleagues on both sides of the aisle who want to reconcile the various
bills that have been introduced on this issue. I have teamed up with
Senator Snowe on this matter now for 14 months. We don't think we have
the last word on this issue. We want to work with colleagues to find
the common ground, to get the help to
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older people that they deserve. Senator Daschle has told me a number of
times recently that is what he wants to do. I believe colleagues on the
other side of the aisle wish to do so as well.
The hour is late. I do not want to keep the Senate in any longer than
necessary, but I intend to keep coming back to the floor, bringing to
the Senate these truly poignant cases of how great the need is in this
country to cover prescription drug costs of the Nation's older people.
I look forward to working with the Presiding Officer of the Senate, a
new Member of this body, and one from a very special family, in my
opinion, because his father was so kind to me as a new Senator. I know
he shares many of the same concerns I have, that we address this issue
in a bipartisan fashion.
I am going to keep coming back to the floor of the Senate talking
about why this is so important and why it is so important for the
Senate to bring these various bills together.
With that, I yield the floor.
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