[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 4, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7269-S7270]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MEDICARE
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, 5 years ago, this body launched a
bipartisan commission on Medicare with the purpose of addressing both
the short-term, mid-term, and long-term challenges we have with
sustaining Medicare, preserving Medicare, and strengthening Medicare.
That bipartisan commission did develop a solid bipartisan proposal.
Since 1999, the Senate Finance Committee has held 29 hearings on
Medicare, and 7 of those hearings specifically focused on adding a
prescription drug benefit to Medicare coverage.
We have discussed the issue, we have debated the issue, we have
dissected it, and we have deliberated on the issue of Medicare
modernization and Medicare improvement for years now--for 6 years since
we first began talking about the Medicare commission.
I sincerely believe that the stars are aligned for legislative action
and a vote to preserve Medicare and strengthen and improve it and
address the prescription drugs issue right now, this month. It is now
time for us not to just talk about the issue again but to act on the
issue.
Since I became majority leader, I have made it clear that it would be
my intention to address the issue using the
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normal order of business, and that is to have a proposal that is
developed and generated in a bipartisan way through the Finance
Committee, bring that bill to the floor of the Senate for further
debate and further amendment. The Finance Committee is progressing
well. The action of the Finance Committee is on course to accomplish my
goal.
Our leadership goal is bringing this to the floor on about June 16, 2
weeks from now. I am pleased with the progress to date. I understand we
have a long way to go. It is a complex piece of legislation, but a very
important piece of legislation that I am absolutely convinced we can
bring to resolution for the benefit of seniors and individuals with
disabilities.
We will have approximately 2 weeks on the floor of the Senate. I have
made that very clear as well so that people, for the last several
months, have been able to prepare and think through what is important
to them, talk to their constituents, talk to their counselors to make
sure we address this in a very thoughtful way.
I think we will be able to work together--both sides of the aisle--to
cull the very best of our ideas and give America's seniors a Medicare
system that will do what we want to do: provide our seniors and
individuals with disabilities real health care security.
I believe we need to work to make sure that seniors do have the
choice and the flexibility to be able to choose the type of coverage
that best meets their individual needs. We need to make sure that
coverage is available to every senior, everywhere. There has to be a
special focus, as we all know, on the issues that pertain directly to
the rural population. You can do that, for example, by requiring plans
to bid in large geographic areas across the country, instead of just
cherry-picking, whether it is urban, or suburban, or just a rural
population. I think we can get rid of the cherry-picking that has
emerged in the current system. If a health coverage plan wants to serve
patients in a high-cost, densely populated suburban or urban area, they
will also have to offer coverage in rural areas, whether it is Maine,
Wisconsin, Montana, or in Iowa.
We can do all of this if we focus on the big picture for the future.
Our fellow citizens are clearly relying on us and we need to focus on
them. Now is the time for us not to just get by another year but to
transform this system in a positive way.
Seniors deserve choice. They deserve having a system that is focused
on the patient, one that is really patient centered. They deserve care
that is flexible, with less paperwork and bureaucracy. They deserve
care that focuses on prevention and not just in response to acute
episodic injury, so that you can capture that early heart disease
before it becomes what is called a cardiomyopathy or a chronic
congestive heart failure. It ends up being less expensive, more
valuable, and certainly keeps patients healthier. They need to be
protected from catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditures. Most seniors do
not realize today that if they get very sick, there is no limit as to
the out-of-pocket costs they have to pay. We need to protect them
especially in those events surrounding catastrophe.
I think seniors should be in a system that allows them the
opportunity to see the doctors they choose. Thus, it is my hope and
intention that we will vote on final passage before leaving for the
Independence Day recess. Once passed, I am very hopeful that the bill,
whatever its final shape, will begin to help seniors as soon as
possible.
Whenever we bring up to date or strengthen a system, it takes time to
implement that plan in a careful and systematic way. I think as we
develop that plan and begin to implement it, there are ways we can
immediately begin to help those seniors who need help with prescription
drugs.
In 1963, when leading the fight to enact Medicare, President John F.
Kennedy said:
A proud and resourceful nation can no longer ask its people
to live in constant fear of a serious illness for which
adequate funds are not available. We owe the right of dignity
in sickness as well as in health.
Medicare, as I mentioned yesterday in this Chamber, has served a
generation of America's seniors very well. Our challenge now is to take
a system which is out of date--if you look at the way state-of-the-art
care is delivered--and bring it up to date so we can serve the current
generation and next generations of seniors equally well.
We have an opportunity to do that now. We have an obligation, I would
argue, to do that now so that we can provide real security for
generations to come.
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