[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 95 (Wednesday, June 25, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5922]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2310
                         MEDICARE MODERNIZATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Garrett). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, again I would like to commend 
the gentleman from New Jersey, the gentlewoman from Ohio and the 
gentleman from Ohio for their remarks. I plan to attend the Rules 
Committee meeting, whenever it is called to order, to put forward an 
amendment, an amendment that I believe is much needed. As I said 
earlier this evening, I believe ultimately, Mr. Speaker, that this 
comes down to cost. For us to have the elderly of this country unfairly 
bear the cost not only of private sector plans, Federal Government 
plans in this country but around the globe is just flat out unfair. 
There is no reason why we cannot do for Medicare what the VA does for 
its veterans. There is no reason why we cannot have formularies, why we 
cannot have pricing. Those who would argue that this would amount to 
price fixing have to come to grips with reality, that the price is 
fixed. In this case it is a price that is fixed on the backs of senior 
citizens across our country, senior citizens who, as I said earlier, 
feel as though they are refugees from their own health care plan, who 
board buses to go to Canada to get prices that they are denied here in 
their own country. Every western democracy, every industrialized nation 
in the world has seen fit to leverage the full faith and credit of 
their governments on behalf of their seniors except the United States 
of America. The preeminent military, social, culture and economic 
leader in the world cannot find it within itself to provide senior 
citizens in this country with a benefit they richly deserve and need.
  My proposal is a very simple one. It takes into account what the VA 
is capable to do for veterans. It takes into account what the private 
sector offers, what our own Federal employees are able to receive, what 
you would be able to get as a prescription price if you traveled to 
Canada, and says, take HHS, take the Department of Defense and the VA 
and impacted Federal agencies and have them collectively come up with a 
price that ultimately takes into consideration the need for research 
and development but also the need to come up with a fair and equitable 
price for the elderly. No matter what plan ultimately is conceived, if 
at the center of that plan we do not address the issue of cost, then we 
have gained nothing. And to have a plan and to be able to go back to 
your district and say that we propose a plan that does not take effect 
until 2006 when in the presidential campaign both candidates and every 
Member of this body, I daresay, campaigned on the fact that they were 
going to provide seniors with the prescription drug relief that they 
needed, to renege on that promise is a travesty. To be frozen in 
indifference, indifference to the need and wants of our senior 
citizens, is a sham. We have to speak out about that. Ronald Reagan 
said that facts are a stubborn thing and the fact of the matter is that 
seniors all across this Nation pay a disproportionate amount of their 
moneys to get prescription drugs.
  My father, God rest his soul, used to say to my mother, Jesus, Mary 
and Joseph, Pauline, who won the war? The very nations that we defeated 
in the Second World War provide prescription drug relief for their 
citizens and yet we, the greatest country on the face of the earth, 
cannot find the money. Oh, we have plenty of money to give to the 
wealthiest 1 percent of this country by way of a tax cut, but we cannot 
find the wherewithal to come up with a prescription drug program for 
the greatest generation in America.

                          ____________________