[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 34 (Tuesday, March 4, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H1477-H1478]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS NO PLANS TO PROVIDE REAL PRESCRIPTION DRUG 
                          BENEFITS FOR SENIORS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Miller of Florida). Pursuant to the 
order of the House of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from California 
(Mr. George Miller) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, this morning, President 
Bush announced his prescription drug benefit plan for senior citizens 
in this country. When it was all said and done, at the end of the 
speech it became clear that there really is no plan for prescription 
drugs from the Bush administration for the seniors in this country.
  The President said he wanted to give seniors more rights to choose 
and it be more flexible, but the fact is, there is nothing to choose 
and nothing to be flexible about. He promised comprehensive benefits, 
but he refused to define what a comprehensive benefit was. He said he 
wanted to protect against high drug costs, but he refused to say what a 
high drug cost was. He said he wanted to provide catastrophic care, and 
yet he refused to say what that catastrophic figure would be so that 
the seniors could take benefit of it.
  Why is that so? Because the prescription drug benefit announced by 
the President today is no different than the one that was announced 
just a few months ago; that is, he does not use prescription drugs to 
benefit the seniors of this country that need it to maintain their 
health, to prevent diseases and illnesses, and to help them recover 
from illnesses; rather, he uses prescription drugs to beat down the 
Medicare system.
  The plan he announced today is the same as he announced before: 
seniors must leave the Medicare system. In order to get a prescription 
drug benefit, they must leave the Medicare system that has served 
millions and millions of seniors so well over the last 40 years. It has 
provided them the health care they would not have otherwise been able 
to have; and it also kept millions of them out of poverty, because it 
provided that health care. It has improved all of the health statistics 
with respect to seniors.
  Now the President says if they want a prescription drug benefit, they 
have to leave that system. They have to go into the HMO system. In the 
last several years, millions of senior citizens went into the HMO 
system. They enticed them with glasses, hearing aids, with prescription 
drug benefits. Only later did the seniors find out, as they read in the 
newspaper, that their HMO was going bankrupt, that their HMO was 
withdrawing service from that area. Millions of rural seniors have 
found out that the HMOs are not available to them if they do want to 
take advantage of them. Hundreds of thousands of seniors in northern 
California participated in the HMOs. Now those HMOs have gone, and they 
are looking for health care somewhere else.
  Why would we do that again? Why would we rerun that history of trying 
to bait and trick the seniors out of the Medicare system, where every 
day they have health care coverage, where every day they are able to 
choose their doctor, where every day they are able to choose their 
physician, where every day their physicians should be able to do what 
is best for them?
  The President wants to use prescription drugs to trick the seniors 
out of that system. That is not the answer. That is not the answer. 
Later this morning, the Democrats introduced a prescription drug 
benefit. It has no tricks, it has no sleight-of-hand, it has no gaps, 
it has no secret thresholds, it has no small print. It simply says that 
we will provide a prescription drug benefit to the seniors of this 
country in the Medicare system, all of those who are eligible, for $25 
a month with a deductible of $100 a year and co-insurance. The 
beneficiary will pay 20 percent of all drugs, and Medicare will pay 80 
percent. After one reaches $2,000, the government will pick up the 
rest.
  That is the prescription drug benefit that essentially Federal 
employees and Members of Congress enjoy. That is what the President 
stood here and said he wanted for America's seniors; but that is not 
the plan, that is not the plan that the President offers to America's 
seniors. Instead, what he offers them is a plan to dismantle the 
Medicare system, to do away with it; and for those who stay in the 
Medicare system, he offers them a discount card, a

[[Page H1478]]

discount card. That is not a prescription drug benefit.
  So for those seniors who leave and join an HMO, lose the choice of 
their doctors, lose the choice of their pharmacy, lose the choice of 
their drugs; for those seniors, they will get a prescription drug 
benefit of minimal coverage, of minimal coverage. When the HMO goes 
bankrupt or refuses to see them, they will come back and they will not 
have their drug coverage.
  He wants to make whether or not your drugs are covered based on where 
you get your health care as opposed to what your illness is, as opposed 
to what the doctor says you need, as opposed to what all of the indices 
say you might need for a particular illness. His determination is 
whether or not you are in Medicare.
  That simply does not comport with the health care needs of America's 
seniors. America's seniors today need prescription drugs, just as they 
need coverage for doctors' visits, for surgery, for outpatient and 
inpatient care. It is part of the continuum of health care.
  The President should not, the President should not do a bait and 
switch with America's seniors so that they can get a prescription drug 
benefit. Every Medicare beneficiary should be covered for prescription 
drugs, and that is what the Democratic bill does that was introduced 
today.

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