[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 76 (Tuesday, June 11, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H3301-H3302]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 23, 2002, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about the need for a 
Medicare prescription drug benefit and particularly point out the 
failures of the Republican leadership in this House as well as the 
President in that they are not addressing this issue. They are not 
bringing up the prescription drug benefit. I was interested in hearing 
what the previous speaker, my colleague, the gentleman from Florida 
(Mr. Stearns), said about how the Republicans wanted every American or 
every senior to have the same kind of package that Congressmen have.
  Well, I have no evidence of that. So far the Republican leadership 
has talked about bringing up a prescription drug bill for about 2 
months in a steady drumbeat that is going to happen this week, it is 
going to happen next week, it is going to happen next month; and we 
have no bill. And the suggestions we have seen about what kind of bill 
they are going to come out with is basically privatizing Medicare so 
that there is no guaranteed benefit at all. So when my colleague 
suggests that somehow seniors under the Republican bill are going to 
get the same kind of benefit that Congressmen have, there is no 
indication of that whatsoever from the Republican leadership. I have 
not seen anything to suggest that.
  Let me say now, once again, I think many of my colleagues know that 
just before the Memorial Day recess we were told by the Republican 
leadership in the House that they were going to bring up a prescription 
drug bill for seniors. It was going to go to committee 2 weeks before 
the Memorial Day recess. It was going to come to the floor the week 
before the Memorial Day recess. It never happened. They came back after 
the Memorial Day recess. We had a week already that we were in session 
and they said we will bring up the bill this week. Then they said we 
will bring up the bill next week. Yesterday I heard that they were 
going to bring up the bill or announce the bill this coming Thursday. 
No bill yet. I have not seen it. There has been no notice in any of our 
committees of jurisdiction, the Committee on Energy and Commerce or the 
Committee on Ways and Means, that we will see this prescription drug 
bill.

                              {time}  1245

  So I am calling upon the Republican leadership, let us address this 
issue. Seniors are hurting. They cannot afford to pay for prescription 
drugs. A lot of them go without. Bring up the bill. Let us have the 
debate. Let us see whether or not the statements that my colleague from 
Florida made have any basis.
  Everything that I have seen so far about the Republicans and what 
they are proposing is what I call a ``privatization'' of Medicare. They 
are saying that they want to bring up legislation that would take some 
money, almost like a voucher, and throw it to private insurance 
companies in the hope that they will provide drug-only policies to 
senior citizens who might be able to purchase such a policy and will 
get some help with it.
  We know that privatization, trying to get insurance companies to 
offer these kinds of drug-only policies, does not work. The insurance 
executives, their trade group, have told Congress and the committees 
that they will not work; they do not want to sell that kind of 
insurance. It is unbelievable why they are just not willing to do what 
the Democrats have proposed and what most Americans want, which is to 
expand Medicare, a very good program that we have, yes, a government 
program, that provides for seniors' hospital care, that provides for 
seniors' doctors' bills, but does not provide for prescription drug, 
simply expand Medicare, very similar to what we do with part B, the 
coverage of doctor bills, and allow people to pay a very low premium 
per month. They get a good percentage of their prescription drug bills 
paid for, and it is a guarantee under Medicare, a very good existing 
program that works for senior citizens.
  I do not know why the Republicans refuse to deal with this as an 
expansion of Medicare and instead talk about privatizing and giving 
some money to insurance companies in the hope that somehow seniors will 
be covered. That is not what the gentleman from Florida suggested, but 
that is what we are hearing from the Republican leadership.
  The problem with Republicans proposal or what they are talking about 
is it does not address cost, does not address price. The problem right 
now, not just for seniors but for all Americans, is the cost of 
prescription drugs continues to escalate, double digit inflation for 
over the last 6 years. What we need to control in some way are these 
prices, and what the Democrats have said is let us have something like 
part B Medicare, like we have for our doctor bills where a person pays 
a very low premium per month, they have a very low deductible. I think 
it is a $100 deductible for the course of the year; 80 percent of the 
cost of their prescription drugs are covered by the Federal Government.
  Most important, we put a cost mechanism in place that we say under 
the Democrats' proposal that the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
is mandated to negotiate and bring prices down because now he is going 
to represent 30 or 40 million seniors, and he will be able to negotiate 
better prices.

[[Page H3302]]

  The Republicans do not talk about that. Not only does the Republican 
leadership want to privatize and just give money to insurance 
companies, but they do not suggest in any way that they are going to 
try to bring down the cost. Why in the world would private insurance 
companies just not try to pass on all the costs and all the money that 
the prescription drug companies make and simply pass it on to seniors? 
We have to have some pricing mechanism, and that is what we are 
demanding.
  The Republicans need to bring up the bill. Bring up a bill that is 
comprehensive coverage under Medicare and that has some kind of pricing 
mechanism.

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