[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 41 (Tuesday, April 4, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H1428-H1429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           LEGISLATION TO FIX THE MEDICARE MODERNIZATION ACT

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take the 
time of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis).
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Ohio?
  There was no objection.
  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, I join my colleague and friend, 
Representative Marcy Kaptur, in talking about the trip to Ohio this 
week of Michael Leavitt, who oversees Medicare and Medicaid and our 
Nation's various health agencies as America's Secretary of the 
Department of Health and Human Services.
  Michael Leavitt is a decent man, but he is manning a ship weighed 
down by wrongheaded laws and misplaced priorities. Take the so-called 
Medicare Modernization Act, the legislation written by the drug 
industry, written by the HMOs in this Congress, pushed through Congress 
in the middle of the night by literally one vote. The Federal 
Government, through that bill, the Federal Government is hand-feeding 
the prescription drug and HMO industries literally hundreds of billions 
of dollars of our tax dollars to manufacture or to make up and to build 
a new private insurance market for seniors' drug coverage, and not to 
provide the coverage directly through Medicare the way people choose 
their doctor in Medicare, the way people choose their hospital. This is 
done through 30, 40, or 50 different private insurance companies 
instead of being done the way that history shows works best.
  Why? Because the drug and insurance industry want it that way. This 
new drug law, this new Medicare law, as I said, written by the drug 
industry and written by the HMOs, with seniors barely given a second 
thought, prohibits the Medicare program from negotiating bulk discounts 
on prescription drugs. And according to the Congressional Budget 
Office, it overpays insurers, the HMOs, by tens of billions of dollars. 
So much for fiscal responsibility.
  The new drug law also undercuts the core Medicare program. If you 
want Medicare to wither on the vine, as former Speaker Gingrich said, 
wall it off and force seniors into the private market, force them out 
of Medicare, put them into the private market to give them additional 
benefits. It is ingenious. It is also underhanded and it is fiscal 
suicide.
  Do my Republican colleagues really believe that when the private 
insurance market controls Medicare that they will give the government 
and they will give seniors a good deal on coverage? Do they really 
believe the drug industry will voluntarily charge lower prices for 
prescription drugs?
  The new Medicare drug law isn't about seniors, it isn't about 
modernization, it isn't about fiscal responsibility. It is about a 
Republican-run Congress that is a little too cozy with the drug 
industry and the HMOs.

[[Page H1429]]

  I am a cosponsor of legislation that would begin to fix this bill. It 
would enable seniors and disabled Medicare enrollees to bypass the 
private insurance market, to say, no, I don't want to compare 30 or 40 
different insurance plans and 30 or 40 different insurance company 
brochures, and talk to 30 or 40 different insurance agents. I want to 
bypass the private insurance market, check a box, and simply add a 
prescription drug benefit to my Medicare. I get to choose my doctor as 
a Medicare beneficiary, I get to choose the hospital, I ought to be 
able to choose my drug formulary.
  It would also authorize Medicare to negotiate bulk discounts on 
prescription drugs. That is the way the Veterans' Administration does 
it. That is the way most countries in the world do it. That is why drug 
prices are a third or a fourth or a fifth in every other country in the 
world, much, much lower prices than there are in the United States.
  In other words, this legislation, this new law as we propose the 
changes, would give seniors and taxpayers a break. Perhaps Secretary 
Leavitt will make use of his Ohio trip to announce the administration's 
support for these bills. Perhaps.
  May 15 is the cutoff for Medicare beneficiaries to enroll in the new 
prescription drug program. If they enroll after that date, believe it 
or not, they have to pay a penalty for late enrollment. Let's think 
about that. My Republican colleagues in Congress and the Bush 
administration have finally acknowledged that the drug program got off 
to a rocky start and is very confusing to seniors. Seniors have sat on 
the phone for up to 2 hours waiting for someone from the Medicare 
hotline to help with enrollment questions.
  I talked to seniors in Vandalia, Ohio, in Cincinnati, in Norton, and 
in London, Ohio. All of them say this Medicare drug benefit is way too 
confusing. Not just prospective enrollees are confused, but State 
agencies, local service agencies, Federal bureaucrats, even the 
insurers who offer the new coverage. Finding the right answer to an 
enrollment question is almost as difficult as choosing which of the 30 
or 40 plans to enroll in.
  And when seniors did enroll in a plan, there were paperwork problems, 
there were systems problems, there were transition problems, there were 
formulary problems, and there were problems in the drugstores where one 
pharmacist at least, one pharmacy in London, Ohio, had to close because 
of the additional cost imposed on these small businesses by this 
bureaucracy created by a Congress that listened to the drug industry 
and the HMOs more than it listened to drugstores, to pharmacists or to 
seniors.
  The various failings of this drug program made the news virtually 
every day for 4 months. Maybe Secretary Leavitt will make use of his 
trip to Ohio to announce the Republican leadership is listening, they 
have changed their minds, and they want to see a better law. Maybe.

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