[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 47 (Thursday, April 13, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H2320]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PRESCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Baird) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, I come before the House today to talk about 
one of the most serious issues affecting senior citizens and families 
across the country. That is the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs 
and the lack of affordable health coverage for seniors.
  Too many of our Nation's senior citizens are forced to make an 
impossible choice each month about whether they buy the food they need, 
pay to heat their homes, or pay for the prescription medication that 
will keep them alive and keep them healthy.
  Mr. Speaker, in the richest country in the history of the world, it 
is simply wrong to force our senior citizens to make that choice. I am 
sure Members have noticed this giant pill bottle. The size of this pill 
bottle reflects the escalating costs of prescription medications in our 
country.
  Mr. Speaker, next week I will travel throughout my district and 
invite senior citizens to bring to me their prescription medications, 
their prescriptions, and the bills they pay for them. Mr. Speaker, we 
are going to fill this prescription bottle with those medication 
receipts, and we are going to bring it back to this body and demand 
action.
  Mr. Speaker, too many senior citizens in this country are making a 
choice, a terrible choice that they should not have to make. This body 
has now been in session more than 15 months. We have talked about 
naming post offices, we have traveled back and forth across the country 
to vote on silly suspension bills, in some cases.
  What have we not voted on? We have not voted on any substantive 
legislation, not one piece of substantive legislation to lower the cost 
of prescription medications or to provide meaningful health insurance 
to our senior citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, we must not apply a placebo false fix to this problem. 
We must provide a real prescription on the House of Representatives to 
solve a real problem that is affecting our senior citizens' health and 
well-being every day.
  Mr. Speaker, when I am in my district next week, I want hundreds of 
senior citizens to come out. I want to share with Members a story. We 
asked many of our seniors to share with us what they are paying for 
prescription medication. I was particularly moved by the story of Ms. 
Gwen Blackman of Longview.
  This is what she wrote to me recently. She is receiving $650 per 
month for social security disability payments, but Mr. Speaker, she 
must pay $360 of that per month for prescription medications. How does 
she do that? Mr. Speaker, she does not do that. What she is forced to 
do is, on some months, go without her medication.

                              {time}  2045

  The richest country in the history of the world, we have senior 
citizens not able to pay for the medication they need because we have 
done nothing to control the escalating costs of prescription 
medications, and we have done nothing substantive to provide 
meaningful, meaningful and real affordable health insurance that 
includes prescription medications for our seniors.
  This House has before it several bills. I am not taking a position 
tonight on exactly which bill we must pass. But, Mr. Speaker, we must 
have this debate, and we must not pass a placebo designed to make us 
feel like we have done something without doing something.
  I hope senior citizens from around this country will look at this 
giant prescription bottle and say I am going to follow the example of 
that Member of Congress, I am going to send my Member my prescription 
medication bottles. I am going to send them the receipts and say, ``Sir 
or Madam, what would you do if you were in my shoes, and what will you 
do as an elected Representative to solve this problem.''

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