[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 51 (Monday, May 1, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3043-S3044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                PHARMACY BENEFITS FOR MILITARY RETIREES

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished chairman of the 
Senate Armed Services Committee, Mr. Warner, as well as my colleagues 
on the committee, Senator Levin, our ranking member, and especially 
Senator Snowe, for their efforts in doing the right thing for our 
Medicare-eligible military retirees.
  Today, there was introduced in the Senate, on behalf of Senator 
Warner, legislation that will have an extremely positive impact on our 
military retirees and their ability to acquire prescription drugs. This 
is enormously important for our retirees and will be strongly supported 
in this body. Hopefully, it will be a part of the defense authorization 
bill that will come to the floor in the next few weeks.

[[Page S3044]]

  This initiative gives all military retirees over 65 the same pharmacy 
benefit that one-third of them already have under the Base Realignment 
and Closure pharmacy program, a mail order and a retail pharmacy 
benefit. It makes sense, and is only fair that all military retirees 
over 65 have one consistent pharmacy benefit.
  This pharmacy benefit is a significant and affordable first step in 
healing the growing rift with the military retiree community caused by 
the Government's failure to deliver on the promise of health care for 
life. The pharmacy benefit is the number one issue and priority of 
military retirees, since pharmacy needs are the biggest drain on the 
pensions of military retirees. Expanding the BRAC pharmacy benefit to 
all Medicare-eligible military retirees is the right thing to do for 
service members who have dedicated their lives to protect and serve our 
country.
  Approximately 450,000 of the 1.3 million Medicare-eligible military 
retirees already have access to a retail and mail order pharmacy 
benefit. This was the result of DOD base closures. When the Base 
Realignment and Closure Commission recommended the closure of several 
military bases, part of what was lost was access to pharmaceutical 
benefits for many retired military personnel who were receiving their 
prescription drugs benefits at those facilities. To address their 
needs, Congress created the BRAC pharmacy benefit which was a mail 
order, as well as a retail benefit, for needed prescriptions.
  Unfortunately, that benefit only covered about a third of all of 
those who have retired, so we had a dual system where, by accident of 
where you had retired and by the results of the Base Closure 
Commission, some retirees received the benefit and others did not. This 
legislation would treat military retirees across the country the same.
  Basically this bill makes prescription drugs accessible and available 
to military retirees over the age of 65, at a very reasonable cost--a 
20 percent co-pay when they acquire the prescription drugs in retail 
pharmacy and an $8 co-pay if they buy them through mail order. There is 
no deductible and no enrollment fee. This is recognition that there are 
incredibly important and significant health needs for our retirees. 
This pharmacy benefit is one that our military retirees richly deserve.
  The BRAC pharmacy benefit was initiated by the Congress in the Fiscal 
Year 1994 Defense Authorization Act to ensure that Medicare-eligible 
retirees, who depended on the base's medical treatment facilities for 
their pharmacy needs, would be taken care of after the base was closed. 
This benefit includes the mail order pharmacy program for the co-
payment of $8 for up to a 90-day supply and use of the Tricare retail 
network pharmacies for a 20-percent co-pay for up to a 30-day supply.
  We ask our armed forces to leave their families, risk their lives, 
fight our wars, help countries ravaged by disasters, and enforce peace 
all over the world. Americans who devote their lives to serving our 
country deserve this benefit. It is wrong for pharmacy benefits to be 
taken away for the sole reason that a retiree has reached the age of 
65.
  That is what happens at the present time. Once they turn 65, they go 
under the Medicare system. Under the Medicare system, there are no 
prescription drug benefits, which they had otherwise been receiving, so 
they are left out in the cold. This initiative lets all military 
retirees know that we have not forgotten them. It lets all of the 
service members know that if they dedicate their lives to the service 
of our country, we will take care of their health care needs from the 
pharmaceutical point of view.

  Again, I express great appreciation to Senator Warner and the 
others--Senator Thurmond and a number of our colleagues on the 
committee--particularly Senator Snowe, who has taken great interest in 
this prescription drug issue. I think all of us know that the issue of 
prescription drugs is something of enormous concern to the elderly in 
this country. It was a benefit that was basically excluded from the 
coverage of Medicare when Medicare was passed in 1965.
  In 1965, the private companies were trying to make Medicare 
effectively the same kind of benefit package that existed in the 
private sector. At that time, very few in the private sector had a 
prescription drug benefit. Today, we see that progress has been made in 
the private sector. Now, more than 95 percent of the private sector 
plans provide prescription drug coverage, but Medicare doesn't. That is 
part of the great debate that, hopefully, we will have in this body 
before we adjourn; that is, are we going to provide prescription drug 
benefits for our senior citizens?
  What the Armed Services Committee, under the leadership of Senator 
Warner, has said is that eligible retirees are going to have those 
health care needs met, and they do it in a way that makes prescription 
drugs accessible to them through a mail order and a direct retail 
system through Tricare. This is basically a nationwide system with only 
a 20-percent co-payment, no enrollment fee, and no deductible, which 
will make these prescription drugs accessible and affordable for people 
who are living in retirement in the armed services community.
  I think this is enormously important. I think it is a great step 
forward. It is in response to the health care needs of men and women 
who have served this country, and I think it bodes very well for 
Congress as we try to work together to try to find ways of meeting the 
needs of others who are retired and need these prescription drugs 
desperately.
  Mr. President, again, I thank Senator Warner and others for their 
leadership and for this extremely important and significant step. It 
bodes well for this institution, and it is an expression of great 
appreciation to the men and women who have served in the Armed Forces 
of our country. I hope that we can follow this precedent and come to 
grips with the challenges that exist for the elderly in our Nation, and 
that we are able to develop a prescription drug benefit for them, too, 
the way we have been able to do it for military retirees. I think that 
would be great work by this Congress, and there is very little reason 
that we cannot do it. We should do it. I look forward to working with 
my colleagues to make sure that it is done.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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