[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 82 (Wednesday, June 19, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H3677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             FULL PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT UNDER MEDICARE

  (Mr. LYNCH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a full drug 
benefit under Medicare. I have seen firsthand the lengths to which our 
seniors are forced to go in order to get the prescriptions that they 
need.
  Recently I had the sad occasion to meet with a group of seniors from 
Massachusetts who were actually boarding a bus to travel to Canada in 
order to get prescription drugs that were not available to them at an 
affordable price in Massachusetts or elsewhere in the United States. 
One of these seniors is a woman named Rosemary Morgan, who is a 67-
year-old woman who is fighting a recurring battle with breast cancer. 
Rosemary needs the drug Tamoxifen in order to keep her disease in check 
and to prolong her life. We are talking about a prescription drug that 
she needs desperately, not something that is merely an optional drug. 
However, because Medicare does not cover the cost of prescription drugs 
and Rosemary has no other form of drug coverage, she is forced to pay 
the highest prices in the world for this Tamoxifen. Were she to buy a 
year's supply at her CVS, it would be $1,468. However, in Canada the 
same prescription is $155 for a year's supply.
  We need to do the right thing by our seniors and adopt a full 
prescription drug benefit under Medicare.

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