[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 71 (Tuesday, June 4, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H3076]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT

  (Ms. WOOLSEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, we all know that today prescription drugs 
are a fact of life and a fact of death. The average American senior 
uses 18 prescription drugs each year, and the cost of those lifesaving 
drugs keeps going up.
  That is why it is our responsibility as Members of Congress to enact 
a comprehensive prescription drug benefit plan, but it must be a plan 
that benefits all seniors and that it is not the kind of plan that our 
GOP leadership has proposed. Under their plan, only some seniors in 
limited scenarios will actually benefit.
  Seniors should be spending time with their grandchildren, not trying 
to figure out how to pay for the medicines they need to live. Let us 
not make Americans' golden years, when they are seniors, into their 
darkest years, forcing them to choose between paying for food and 
paying for their medication. Seniors deserve better than that.
  My Republican colleagues need to stop stalling. They need to come up 
with a meaningful proposal. They need to start helping seniors by 
providing a real prescription drug benefit.

                          ____________________