[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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