[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 95 (Monday, July 15, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6802-S6803]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 PRESCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE FOR SENIORS

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I am very hopeful the Senate will be able 
to get on the issue of prescription drug coverage very soon. This is an 
urgent issue for seniors and the people of this country. I want to 
spend a few minutes tonight talking about why this is so important and 
what I think the real challenge is to the Senate in the next couple of 
weeks.
  Mr. President, for the last quarter of the 20th century, the standard 
Government line on prescription drugs for older people was a little bit 
like the marquee of the big, old-fashioned theaters you would see 
downtown. The marquee sign was all lit up and it always read: ``Coming 
soon.'' But, for seniors, that ``soon'' just never seems to arrive.
  Years ago, when I was director of the Oregon Gray Panthers--I had the 
honor to be co-director for about 7 years before I was elected to the 
House--I got many of the questions then that all of us in the Senate 
get now. Seniors asked then, just as they do now at our town meetings, 
if anybody in Washington is ever going to provide some real help in 
paying for prescription medicines.
  I am very pleased that Senator Daschle has made this a priority issue 
for the Senate. He has made it very clear to me that he is willing to 
work with anybody in the Senate to finally get this job done and to get 
it done right.
  I think we know what this issue is all about for seniors, and that is 
the cost of medicine and coverage for medicine. In effect, cost and 
coverage really go hand in hand because if you are able to get seniors 
coverage, but you have not held down the cost, then you are not getting 
a whole lot for the Government's money. Of course, if you take steps to 
control costs, but many seniors still don't have the ability to meet 
even those costs, we will continue to have more and more older people 
fall between the cracks.

  So it is important that the Senate addresses both of these issues and 
addresses them right. I want to talk for a few minutes about what I 
think some of the key components are first of holding costs down. 
First, I think it is important that it be done with bargaining power in 
the private sector. In discussing this--and we will do this over

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the next couple of weeks--I want to describe what I was involved in 
back in the 1970s when I was co-director of the Oregon Gray Panthers.
  I remember one rainy night standing with a swarm of seniors around a 
labor union pharmacy that was barely bigger than a pill box. We were 
kicking off a program that night where seniors, through labor unions 
and others in the community, had been able to bargain with 
pharmaceutical concerns, and seniors were able to get their drugs at 
cost, plus a small monthly fee. It worked for the company, it worked 
for the seniors.
  The community pulled together, and in this little pharmacy, which I 
have said was really no bigger than a pill box, we saw that you could 
set up bargaining power right in the private sector. I think tonight, 
how many more older people in this country need the benefits of 
bargaining power today? So I am very hopeful that on this question of 
cost containment we focus on bargaining power.
  Senator Daschle made it clear that it is a priority to him. He will 
work with all our colleagues to make sure that is in a final bill and 
that we remember that across this country, and that what happened in 
Eugene, OR, more than 25 years ago has been duplicated elsewhere, and 
that what happened there is all about making sure people could have 
bargaining power in the private sector so that senior citizens can 
afford their medicine.
  The underlying legislation that is going to give all Americans--not 
just seniors, but all Americans--quicker access to generic drugs is 
another step toward private sector cost containment. I commend my 
colleagues--Senator Schumer, Senator McCain, and others--who have 
worked so hard on this legislation.
  After I had the honor of serving as codirector of the Gray Panthers, 
I served on the Health Subcommittee in the House of Representatives, 
and we had a chance to work on what I thought was historic legislation. 
It was drafted by our distinguished colleague, the senior Senator from 
Utah, Orrin Hatch, and Congressman Waxman. It struck a good balance 
between holding down costs for seniors by making it easier to get 
access to generic medicine, while at the same time promoting innovation 
and research in the breakthrough products that are so important to 
seniors in this country.
  I believed the Congress got it right in that Hatch-Waxman legislation 
and that the legislation we will be considering over the next couple of 
weeks is going to continue that kind of balance. We may try to refine 
it, and I am certainly open to that, but I think it will continue that 
crucial balance that was put together in the historic Hatch-Waxman 
legislation of helping to contain the costs for seniors and others 
through access to generic medicine, while at the same time promoting 
the new cures, the new research, the exciting breakthrough products 
that are so important.
  What I have tried to contribute to the Senate on prescription drugs 
has been an effort to come up with solutions that are going to work in 
the real world for Americans trying to navigate our health care system. 
In the past two sessions of the Congress, Senator Snowe and I have 
introduced bipartisan legislation. Tonight for just a few minutes, I 
want to express my appreciation to Senator Daschle and others in the 
leadership because the bill they will try to offer when we get to the 
question of Medicare coverage for seniors has been a genuine effort to 
address each of the concerns Senator Snowe and I have focused on in our 
legislation.
  When we get to that question, we are sure to have Members say this 
country cannot afford such coverage. They are going to say that the 
costs have already accelerated today; that we are having a demographic 
tsunami coming in just a few years, with millions of more older people 
in 2009, 2010, and 2011 retiring, and they are going to say the country 
cannot afford for the Congress to cover prescription drugs for older 
people.
  I want to make it clear that, in my opinion, the Congress cannot 
afford not to cover senior citizens, and I want to give a short example 
of why this is so urgently needed.
  Not long ago, a physician in Hillsboro, OR, in the metropolitan area 
surrounding Portland, wrote to me that he put a senior citizen in a 
hospital for a 6-week course of antibiotics because it was the only way 
the patient could afford the treatment.
  Of course, when the senior goes into the hospital, Medicare Part A, 
which covers institutional services, picks up the bill, no questions 
asked. The check gets written by the program to cover the costs in the 
hospital. Of course, that same condition could have been treated under 
Medicare Part B, the outpatient portion of Medicare. Our assessment is 
that to spend 6 weeks in an Oregon hospital probably cost the Medicare 
Program $40,000, $50,000, $60,000, to pick up those huge costs for an 
individual who had to be hospitalized to get the benefit, whereas it 
probably would have cost a few hundred dollars to have treated that 
person on an outpatient basis under Part B of the Medicare Program.

  When we hear in this Chamber and elsewhere that America cannot afford 
to cover prescription drugs for seniors, I am going to do my best to 
remind people about what I heard from that physician in Hillsboro, OR, 
and it has been repeated all over this country, because I think it is 
clear we cannot afford not to have this important program.
  We know what needs to be done in the next few weeks. We ought to 
promote easier access to generics. It is one of the key parts of the 
equation of doing this right. We ought to make sure that seniors have 
bargaining power in the private sector.
  The model that will be used in the legislation Senator Graham and 
Senator Miller have drafted incorporated much of what I and Senator 
Snowe have been concerned about, and that is to make sure that 
bargaining power is structured in the private sector so that costs are 
not shifted to millions of other Americans. There is no Senator who 
wants, in the effort to come up with a prescription drug proposal for 
seniors, to end up shifting costs on to their children and their 
grandchildren. That is why private sector bargaining power, something 
about which I and Senator Snowe have felt strongly, and Senator Daschle 
has graciously worked with us on, is included in what the Senate is 
going to have a chance to vote for.
  Those are some of the key questions. I will wrap up by way of saying 
that as we move into this discussion over the next couple of weeks, we 
have one principal challenge as we try to pass a comprehensive bill and 
then have it go to discussions with our colleagues in the House, and 
that is to make it clear to the country that this is a real effort to 
help, and not just an exercise in election-year rhetoric. The seniors 
who have come to us at our meetings have watched this Congress and 
other Congresses debate this topic and come back to it sporadically 
from time to time. They want to know: Is this on the level? Is this a 
real effort now to do the job right? I believe it is. I believe the 
commitment is there now and that this is not just an election-year 
exercise.
  There are key principles. We have an opportunity to address the 
questions of cost and coverage in a way that can win the support of 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle. The question of private sector 
bargaining power, ensuring that the program is voluntary so that any 
senior who is comfortable with their existing coverage can continue it 
if they choose to do otherwise--these are principles that are going to 
be in the Graham-Miller proposal that can win the support of colleagues 
on both sides of the aisle.
  These are principles that can bring the Senate together. Let us make 
sure that at the end of this 2-week period, when we have had the 
opportunity to help seniors and help all Americans with respect to the 
cost of medicine, we do not let this opportunity slip away once again.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I 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. REID. 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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