[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 95 (Wednesday, June 25, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5914]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Garrett of New Jersey). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I stand here this evening on the east coast. 
It is 10 o'clock, and our schedule is such that in the House of 
Representatives tomorrow we should be debating on this floor a bill to 
provide a more modernized Medicare delivery system which will focus on 
the needs of those receiving Medicare, mostly seniors, senior citizens, 
and also those with disabilities, their needs for medication. And as I 
am speaking, one of the last to speak this evening, remarking on the 
particular needs that women have, women my age because I am in that 
category who live longer and perhaps have worked out of the home less 
because of the needs of caring for both children and sometimes elders, 
and, therefore, pensions and other means of having security and 
retirement are not quite as readily available. So this burden weighs 
heavily on me. As I speak this moment, deliberations are under way for 
the rules for which we will debate this legislation tomorrow, and we 
will see what comes out of our time together on the floor of the House 
tomorrow.
  It is a momentous occasion because in my time of being a Member of 
Congress, having come to this place out of the health care field, 
having been a public health nurse for quite a few years in my community 
on the central coast of California, I have listened to my constituents 
in this new role of being their representative in the House of 
Representatives, the people's House, which by its very definition 
connects us to the citizens for whom we have this great opportunity and 
responsibility of being their voice here in the Federal Government to 
make sure that their needs and their inspiration and their motivations 
are heard.
  So I take seriously when many folks in my congressional district tell 
me that they are the ones who are buying these medications because 
their heart ailment or their arthritis or their different chronic 
conditions are requiring them to take medications, that they really 
cannot afford these if they are retired or living on a fixed income 
because of Social Security requirements and also maybe their pension.
  These are not exorbitant amounts usually. They do not consider 
themselves poor. They have worked all their life, done well really, the 
Greatest Generation is what many have called them; and yet they find 
themselves struggling at a time when they had looked to their 
government with the promise of Medicare, which they had seen there for 
their parents, this program that was instituted in the 1960's, and they 
say why is it that I cannot pay for my medications? They are so 
expensive. I go one month and it is a particular cost, sometimes $100 
or several hundred; go another month and it has been practically 
doubled in price. It is terrifying for seniors who face perhaps 
hospital stays if they do not take their medication. The blood pressure 
shooting up, consequences and side effects to conditions that they want 
to control so that they can live independent lives, not to be dependent 
on their children or on others or on society, God forbid, having lived 
independent lives.
  So I carry this burden to Congress, and I am proud of being part of a 
country that had the wherewithal and the mindset, first of all, to 
start the Social Security system so that we recognize that we really do 
want to respect the security needs of our seniors; and then when we 
recognized that health care was beyond the reach of many of them in the 
1960's, we devised a plan. I was not here then, of course; but I saw 
that it made such an impact on citizens that I was working with and 
dealing with living amongst my own family members to see that Medicare 
could be there because the private sector, the insurance companies 
found that this population was hard to insure. These are the years when 
people need their medical doctors and their sometimes hospital stays 
and often medications to stay alive and to stay healthy, and Medicare 
has been a blessing because people are living longer. I think there is 
a direct connection.
  Now we face this crisis. I commend this administration and this 
Congress foreseeing that this is a time that we must do something about 
this. But we now must do it in the right way. We have seen that a 
public provision is what is needed for Medicare. We must also make sure 
that we do not go off that track and try to privatize this one aspect 
of it. We have had that option, and that itself was rather an 
experiment to offer Medicare+Choice. A few years ago that became very 
popular. That has not worked in my area on the central coast of 
California, and it is rural.
  I will wrap this up by saying that the decisions that we will make 
tomorrow will have tremendous ramifications, and we need to learn from 
the people we represent and listen to them and do what they have asked 
us to do, which is to keep this plan a public plan as it has been, 
provide the prescription medication in the way that we know that will 
serve their needs best.

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