[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 65 (Tuesday, May 11, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2780-H2781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PRESCRIPTION DRUG DISCOUNT CARDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. Brown of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, my disagreement with Secretary 
Rumsfeld began 2 years ago, 1\1/2\ years ago, when it was clear when 
Members of this Congress, in this House, and both parties were calling 
on the President and the Secretary of Defense to provide body armor for 
our soldiers, many of whom did not have body armor, with demands that 
they put armor on the underbellies and the doors of Humvees; still are 
not fully done and Americans have died because of it. That is the first 
major criticism of the Secretary of Defense and the President, 
something that they should have stopped what they were doing to take 
care of the safety of our men and women in Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, last week enrollment began for the President's 
prescription drug discount card. They became available through the 
Medicare bill passed last year. What we could have done in this body is 
simply to have given a card like this, a Medicare card to every senior, 
and said this card will get them a significant 50, 60, 70 percent 
discount in their prescription drugs because we could have set our 
system up the way Canada does. The Secretary of the Center for Medicaid 
and Medicare Services, the director, could have negotiated directly 
with the drug companies on behalf of 40 million Medicare beneficiaries, 
got a discount similar to what they have in every nation in the world, 
given this discount card to every senior, and they could have gotten a 
discount the way the Canadians get and the French get and the Germans 
and the Israelis and the Japanese, a 50, 60, 70 percent discount. 
Instead, the President wanted to privatize Medicare. He wanted to 
privatize these prescription drug cards, these discounts cards.
  So what do we have? Beginning last week in my State of Ohio, there 
will be 50 cards available. I am not making this up. They need to 
select one of these 50 cards if they are a senior. This card may have a 
discount for Fosamax. This card may have a discount for Zoloft. This 
card may have a discount for Vioxx. This card may have a discount for 
something else. Maybe a 22 percent discount here, a 12 percent discount 
here. They have got to figure that out as a senior. They have got to 
look at all 50 of these cards and figure out where it makes the most 
sense to get a discount and which card makes the most sense for them. 
After they take one of these cards, they will be paying $30 and have 
this card for the year. The problem is the card seller, several of whom 
are big contributors to the President, and they are going to make a lot 
of money, these cards, but the prescription drug card seller, after 
they have chosen the card, can change the discount and can change the 
drug formulary in the drugs which are covered.
  One might wonder why the President and why my friends on the other 
side of the aisle, instead of choosing one card and getting a 50 or 60 
percent discount, would make seniors look at 50 cards and try to figure 
out the best 10 or 15 percent discount that they are going to get. One 
might wonder why would the President, why would the Republican 
leadership choose to do that. It has got a whole lot to do with the way 
this Congress operates. The word on the street is the drug industry is 
going to give $100 million to the President's reelection campaign. The 
drug industry and the insurance industry have already contributed 
millions of dollars to the Republican leadership, to the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. DeLay) and the gentleman from Illinois (Speaker Hastert) and 
Republican leadership, millions of dollars to President Bush. In fact, 
a nonpartisan study said that this bill will mean $150 billion more in 
subsidies to the drug industry, in additional profits to the drug 
industry, and a $46 billion direct subsidy to the insurance industry, 
$46 billion coming out of taxpayers' pockets, going directly to the 
insurance industry, $46 billion.
  We could take that $46 billion and divide it among the 39 million 
Medicare beneficiaries and they would each get a $1,100 drug benefit 
just from that alone. Instead, Republican leadership gives us

[[Page H2781]]

these cards and gives the insurance industry a $46 billion subsidiary. 
And do my colleagues know what? While the drug benefit program does not 
go into effect until 2006, the insurance industry, the HMOs, already 
got their payment on March 1, their first payment.
  Mr. Speaker, we could have done this right and done a regular 
prescription drug program through Medicare with a good discount. 
Instead, the President and the Republican leadership have again done 
the bidding of the drug industry, again have done the bidding of the 
insurance industry, again have done the bidding of these companies that 
make these discount cards.
  It is outrageous, Mr. Speaker, that instead of doing Medicare right 
and preserving the Medicare that we know and that this country likes 
and that seniors have benefited from, we have privatized this system. 
We have confused seniors, and we have let the drug industry and the 
insurance industry write this legislation, benefit from that 
legislation, and cash in on this legislation.

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