[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 115 (Monday, September 25, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9127-S9128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT

  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, for the past 2 weeks, my colleagues have 
heard me speak regarding the need to add a prescription medication 
benefit to Medicare. I indicated that in my judgment the most 
fundamental reform for Medicare is to shift it from a program which, 
since its inception, has focused on illness and accident--that is, 
providing services after one becomes sick enough, generally, to go into 
the hospital or has suffered an accident that requires treatment and 
hospitalization--and move to a system that also emphasizes prevention; 
that is, to maintain the highest state of good health and not wait 
until the state of good health has been destroyed.
  If we are to adopt that fundamental shift, it will necessitate that 
Medicare provide a prescription drug benefit. Why? Because virtually 
every regimen that is prescribed to stabilize a condition or reverse a 
condition involves prescription drugs. So a fundamental component of 
reforming Medicare is to provide prescription drugs.
  I have also spoken about the skyrocketing drug prices which are now 
affecting virtually all of our older citizens.
  Today, in my fifth and final statement in this series, I want our 
colleagues to hear from real people, the people who are affected by the 
decisions we are about to make. These stories remind us that we have 
little time to waste.
  Unfortunately, some of the voices I am going to present are probably 
going to be too far gone in their need for prescription drugs and in 
their personal circumstances to benefit by a program which, under the 
most optimistic timetable, would not commence until October 1, 2002 
and, under other proposals, would be even 2 years beyond that in terms 
of being available through the Medicare program as a universal benefit.
  While we are arguing as to whether to put a prescription medication 
benefit into effect and start the clock running towards the time when 
it will actually be available, people are breaking bones. They are 
going blind. While we are debating which party would benefit

[[Page S9128]]

from the passage of a prescription drug program this year, people are 
in pain.
  This is not a hyperbole. This is not rhetoric. This is reality for 
hundreds of thousands of seniors from every State and from every 
political persuasion. This is a 911 call. If we fail to pass a 
prescription drug benefit this session, if we fail to start the clock 
running towards the time when this benefit will be available to all 
Medicare beneficiaries, we will have ignored their pleas for help.
  I appreciate being provided with a few moments to share some of these 
voices of pain. I am also painfully aware that the stories I am going 
to tell are not unique. They are common. They have become near cliches 
here in Washington. I would wager that every one of us has a 
constituent who has written us about splitting pills to make 
prescriptions last longer. My guess is that every Member of this 
Chamber has heard from someone who has to make that difficult choice 
between food or prescription drugs. And we hear from doctors handing 
out free samples of medicine whenever they can get them and begging for 
help on behalf of their patients.
  We get letters describing situations as ``desperate'' and from 
numerous people who tell us they are at wits' end. The tragedy is that 
we have been telling these stories for so long they are beginning to 
sound like nothing more than 30-second TV clips. The fault is ours for 
failing to act. These are not 30-second sound bits. These are real 
stories of our friends, our neighbors, in many cases our parents and 
grandparents. Someday they could be all of us.

  These are people such as Nancy Francis of Daytona Beach, FL. Ms. 
Francis used to be able to get the medication she needs through 
Medicaid as a medically indigent older person. Then the Government did 
her a great favor. It raised her monthly Social Security check. Because 
of that raise, she is now too rich by all of $6.78 a month, to qualify 
for Medicaid. This $6.78 leaves her fully dependent upon Medicare for 
health care financing.
  Medicare is a good system with a gaping hole. It does not cover 
prescription drugs. Medicaid, the program for the medically indigent, 
paid for nine prescriptions Ms. Francis takes in order to stay active 
and well. Medicare pays for none. Ms. Francis can put every penny of 
that $6.78 a month towards her prescriptions and it won't make a dent. 
So for some months, Ms. Francis just doesn't buy any prescription 
drugs. Then she waits and hopes she will be able to stay alive long 
enough for help to arrive.
  Then there is Mary Skidmore of New Port Richey, FL. Mrs. Skidmore 
worked for 20 years renting fishing boats. Her late husband worked on 
the railroad. Now she thinks she may have to get another job. Mrs. 
Skidmore is 87 years old. She has two artificial knees. No one, she 
says, will hire her. She needs a job to pay for a new hearing aid. 
Without a hearing aid, she cannot hear sermons at her church on Sunday. 
But with $300 a month in prescription medication bills, a hearing aid 
is a luxury that Mrs. Skidmore cannot afford.
  She takes medication for her heart, cholesterol, bones, and blood 
pressure. Giving up this medicine is not an option. It is, in her 
words, ``what keeps me going.''
  Mrs. Skidmore's medication bills have even kept her from marrying her 
boyfriend. He has enough to pay for the utilities in the home they 
share, but not much else. If she marries him, she will lose her former 
husband's railroad pension--a pension that she counts on to survive.
  Marsaille Gilmore of Williston, FL, is a little bit luckier. Between 
Social Security and a little bit of income from investments, she and 
her husband can usually pay for the $300 to $400 per month she spends 
on prescription medication. Sometimes they even have a little left over 
to go out to dinner--but not to the movies. Mrs. Gilmore says the 
movies are too expensive.
  Some months, the Gilmores are not so lucky. Recently, their truck 
broke down. It is now in the shop, and things are stretched pretty 
tight. Sometimes things are so tight that the Gilmores think about 
going to Mexico to stock up for half the price on the very same 
medications they now buy in Williston.
  Remember Elaine Kett? I told her story last week. Elaine is 77 years 
old. She spends nearly half her income on medication. This chart 
indicates the number of prescription drugs which Mrs. Kett fills every 
month. The total is $837.78 a month or $10,053.36 a year. That figure 
is almost exactly half of Mrs. Kett's total annual income. Her 
prescriptions are helping to keep her alive. How ironic then that in 
her plea for help she writes that the cost of medication is ``killing 
her.'' It is the very thing she depends upon for life; it is the source 
of her quality of life.
  Dorothy Bokish is in a similar trap. She pays $188 in rent each month 
and $162 for her prescription drugs. That leaves her with $238 a month 
for food, heat, air-conditioning, and gas. It doesn't leave much for 
her to buy gifts for her grandchildren or to take herself to an 
occasional show. I shudder to think what would happen should something 
go wrong--or, if I may say, more wrong--for Mrs. Bokish.
  What would she have to give up if her water heater broke or a storm 
knocked out a window in her home? What does she have left to give up? 
What some seniors are considering giving up is unconscionable.
  A central Florida man told his family, which is helping to buy his 
medication so his wife can afford to continue to take hers, he is 
considering giving up his medication so that his wife can live. If he 
does so, he will certainly die.
  Another Florida senior has gone through two grueling heart surgeries 
and has been prescribed medication to stave off a third. But he can't 
afford to fill the prescription. He says he thinks sometimes he would 
rather die than go through surgery again. He says that sometimes the 
struggle to survive is just too much.
  I am profoundly embarrassed when I tell these stories. I am 
embarrassed that in these times of unprecedented prosperity as a 
nation, we have not come together to find some way to ease this pain. 
These seniors and countless others wait and wait and wait. There are 
those who now say we have to wait until another election to even begin 
the process of providing meaningful prescription drug coverage. Many of 
them won't be able to wait until the next month, much less until 
another extended period of indecision here.
  The time to act is now. This is quite literally a matter of life and 
death. It is also quite literally a challenge to our Nation's basic 
sense of decency and values. It is my hope that before this session of 
the Congress concludes, we will have responded to the highest values of 
our American tradition.
  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. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kyl). Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry: How much time do 
I have?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is in morning business. Under the 
previous order, this hour is under the control of the Senator from 
Wyoming, Mr. Thomas.
  Mr. DOMENICI. I thank the Chair.

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