[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 43 (Thursday, April 6, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H1664-H1670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fortenberry). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Gingrey) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority 
leader.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I am very happy, of course, to be here 
tonight to take this leadership hour and talk about something that is 
really near and dear to my heart but, more importantly, near and dear 
to the hearts of 41, 42 million seniors in this country who finally, 
because of the leadership of this Congress, the Republican leadership 
and this President, have delivered on a promise that was made years 
ago. And that delivery, I know a lot about them because as an OB/GYN 
physician before coming to Congress, I delivered 5,200 babies, but this 
may be the best delivery that I have ever been a part of, Mr. Speaker, 
and that is delivering, as I say, on a promise made by former 
Congresses and other Presidents over the 45-year history of the 
Medicare program, which was introduced in 1965 with no prescription 
drug benefit. And what we have done here is add part D, the ``D'' for 
``drugs'' or, if you want, the ``delivery'' that we have finally 
provided to our American seniors.
  This prescription drug benefit is a wonderful thing, and, of course, 
we are going to talk about that tonight. I have a number of my 
colleagues that have joined me, and we will be getting information from 
them, from their districts. We will be engaging in colloquy as we go 
through the hour, Mr. Speaker, talking about the success stories 
because we do not want to stand up here for an hour and expect people 
to take our word for this. I think it is very important, Mr. Speaker, 
that we hear from our seniors, whether they are from the 11th District 
of Georgia that I represent or whether they are from the gentlewoman's 
Virginia District, Representative Thelma Drake, who is here with us, 
and others.
  But when we passed this bill in November of 2003 and the President 
signed it into law shortly thereafter in December, we had so much 
criticism from the other side of the aisle, it was really amazing. Of 
course, maybe I could understand the politics of it back then because 
we had finally delivered on a promise that maybe they had made and not 
delivered on. But we are into the sign-up period, and, in fact, May 15, 
after that date there is a penalty for late signing up, and yet the 
other side is still discouraging the 8 million that have not yet signed 
up. And that is, Mr. Speaker, I think just so disappointing.
  I have heard for the last 1\1/2\ years the criticism from the 
Democrats about this program being nothing but a giveaway to the 
pharmaceutical industry, that the program was designed by them, that 
the government cannot negotiate price controls.
  Well, I want to take a few minutes, Mr. Speaker, before yielding to 
my good friend from Virginia. Listen to this: on March 9, 2000, the 
Clinton

[[Page H1665]]

White House released the following ``united vision for a new Medicare 
prescription drug benefit.'' Many parts of this vision closely mirror 
the Republican-passed plan that the Democrats have been opposing and 
criticizing for a 1\1/2\ years. And I take this text that I am going to 
read directly from the Clinton White House Web site.
  The White House, Office of the Press Secretary: ``President Clinton 
and Senate Democrats unified in vision for new Medicare prescription 
drug benefit for immediate release March the 9th, 2000. Senate 
Democrats agree on principles for a new Medicare prescription drug 
benefit. Today Senator Daschle and the Senate Democratic Caucus 
released a set of prescription drug principles that will guide the 
current congressional debate over the provision of a new Medicare 
prescription drug benefit to millions of seniors. These principles 
state that any new benefit should be: Number one, voluntary.'' Sound 
familiar? ``Medicare beneficiaries who now have dependable, affordable 
coverage should have the option of keeping that coverage.
  ``Accessible to all beneficiaries.'' Again, sound familiar? ``All 
seniors and individuals with disabilities, including those in 
traditional Medicare, should have access to a reliable benefit designed 
to give beneficiaries meaningful protection and bargaining power. A 
Medicare drug benefit should help seniors and the disabled with the 
high cost of prescription drugs and protect against excessive out-of-
pocket costs.'' The catastrophic coverage in our plan. ``It should give 
beneficiaries bargaining power that they lack today and include a 
defined benefit, assuring access to medically necessary drugs.'' 
Exactly what this Republican Medicare modernization part D bill does.
  ``Affordable to all beneficiaries and the program, Medicare should 
contribute enough towards a prescription drug premium to make it 
affordable for all beneficiaries. While subsidies should be provided to 
all to assure the benefit is affordable, low-income beneficiaries 
should receive extra help with the cost of premium and cost sharing.''
  Again, Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, does that sound familiar? That 
is exactly what this bill does.
  Let me continue because this is just so instructive. Again, this is 
the Bill Clinton Presidency and Democratic Congress plan back in 2000.
  ``Administered using private sector entities and competitive 
purchasing techniques. Discounts should be achieved through 
competition, not regulation or price controls.''
  They have been griping about this for 1\1/2\ years, and their plan 
calls for private competition and no price controls.

                              {time}  2200

  It should mirror practices employed by private insurers in delivering 
prescription drugs. Private organizations should negotiate prices with 
drug manufacturers and handle the day-to-day administrative 
responsibilities of the benefit.'' That is exactly what this plan does 
and what they have been railing about, again, for the past year-and-a-
half. So hypocritical, it is unbelievable.
  So I just wanted to bring this press release, this Clinton press 
release, and show you that the Democrats really wanted to do this, but 
they couldn't deliver. They could not deliver on the goods, and they 
can't stand it. They literally cannot stand the fact that this 
President, who they despise, who they detest, and this Republican 
leadership, who has been in control of this Congress for the last 12 
years and is delivering, is getting things done, is not just simply 
sitting back and throwing bricks and screaming and hollering. And as we 
get closer and closer to the deadline, the rhetoric will continue to 
increase.
  Well, I just wanted to start the hour, Mr. Speaker, certainly not on 
a negative tone, because we are very positive about this. I personally 
as a physician Member am extremely excited that we are leaving 
tomorrow, most of us will be leaving tomorrow, to go back to our 
districts for a 2-week work period.
  I am told by our Conference chairperson, the gentlelady from Ohio, 
Deborah Pryce, that the Republicans, the 231 of us in this body, have 
scheduled over 200 town hall meetings over this 10-day period while we 
go back home and work for our seniors, not against our seniors.
  I am excited about it, because I have four of those 200 scheduled in 
my district, and I am really looking forward to it and looking forward 
to help get those few, I think I said at the outset that some 27 
million of 41 million eligible have now signed up, probably 5 or 6 
million of those who have not already have a drug plan. We understand 
that. They have a plan, whether it is TRICARE, if they happen to be a 
veteran, or the widow or widower of a veteran, or they are signed up 
under a company that they worked many years for and retired with not 
only health insurance benefits, but a prescription drug coverage. They 
don't need it. But there are still 6 or 8 million that do, and that is 
why I am excited to get home and bring the good news to them.
  At this point I want to yield to my colleagues. We have several with 
us here on the floor tonight, Mr. Speaker. The gentleman from 
Pennsylvania is the first to stand, and I want to recognize him.
  I want to say a little bit about him before I turn the microphone 
over to Dr. Murphy.
  Dr. Tim Murphy is a classmate of mine. We came in the 108th Congress. 
We have served together now for about 3\1/2\ years. He and I actually 
cochair the Republican Health Care Public Relations Committee. We could 
probably spend this hour talking about any number of issues regarding 
health care that the Republicans have done.
  But we are going to concentrate, as I said at the outset, and talk 
about this Medicare modernization. We don't want to forget that part, 
because that is almost as important as the prescription drug part.
  At this time, I am very proud to yield to my friend from 
Pennsylvania, Dr. Representative Tim Murphy.
  Mr. MURPHY. I thank the distinguished doctor from Georgia for 
yielding to me and for your important information for our colleagues 
and really for our Nation to understand the importance of the Medicare 
prescription drug plan.
  Some of the things said will bear repeating several times over the 
next few weeks, and one of the points I want to talk about, as you have 
discussed as well, is misinformation that is sent out about this plan.
  Any time something is new, there is going to be some glitches. All of 
us, when our children were new, well, we knew as parents we didn't 
exactly know everything we were doing and we had a foul-up or two, but 
we persevered and our children turned out well. No matter what one does 
in life, when it is something new in learning the ropes of it, it is 
going to take a little adjustment.
  But as we were signing up 27 million seniors at a rate sometimes 
approaching 400,000 a week, the system wasn't always perfectly ready 
for all of them, and there were some glitches, particularly for some 
folks who were dual eligible.
  But the point is HHS or Medicare responded, put extra people on 
board, worked out some of the glitches, and I am pleased to say that 
many of the seniors that I talked to are very pleased with this 
program.
  As a matter of fact, I was recently giving a town hall meeting, there 
must have been 200 people in the audience there, and I asked how many 
of them have yet to sign up for a Medicare plan? Not a single hand went 
up. It seems that all of them had looked at the plan at that point, and 
that Pennsylvania had chosen a number of things.
  One gentleman decided to stick with the veterans plan. He liked that. 
He had served in the military for many years now as a veteran. Another 
woman was pleased that she could maintain the Pennsylvania PACE plan 
for low income seniors that worked well for her. Another woman said she 
was actually saving several hundred dollars so far, and it was only 
March, with the Medicare prescription drug plan.
  It is folks like this who really tell the truth about what is going 
on. While politicians may be out there trying to scare seniors, it is 
the seniors themselves that are perhaps the best salesmen saying it is 
valuable.
  It was only a short period ago that the stories that were always in 
the newspapers were of seniors getting on board busses and going off to 
Canada to pick up their prescription drugs, or perhaps using mail order 
systems to

[[Page H1666]]

try to pick up prescription drugs. But I want to point out a couple of 
things that is important that.
  One, a study of the overall costs of traveling off to Canada, it 
turns out that the overall cost savings was probably only around 1 
percent when you looked at it. But AARP and others have said that 
actually the savings that comes from the Medicare prescription drug 
plan are at least equal to and sometimes better than traveling across 
the Nation's lines to pick up drugs.
  Also a very, very important savings factor here is not just a matter 
of saving money, but saving lives. And in the process of seniors trying 
to find drugs that are affordable to them, Mr. Speaker, what they are 
also doing is getting on the Internet or going through mail order 
houses and trying to pick up prescription drugs from foreign sources 
and tragically finding that those sources contain counterfeit drugs.
  One, a drug used to treat schizophrenia, it turned out to be nothing 
more than white pills that said the word aspirin on them. Other 
medications had water in them that was tainted. Other ones may have had 
paint or foreign substances in them.
  The point is, not only were they sometimes toxic in and of 
themselves, but in not treating the illness, the things that went with 
that is sometimes having seniors take medications that they could have 
been allergic to or take medications that certainly, at the very least, 
were not treating their illness.
  By having an affordable prescription drug plan, what we have instead 
is getting the right medicines to the right people so that they are 
taking medications that are valuable to them and can help treat their 
illnesses.

  But let me point out some more things we have to understand, because 
as people also look at the expense of a prescription drug plan, we have 
to understand that, unfortunately, the way this system works in this 
Federal Government, the Congressional Budget Office doesn't ever tell 
us how much we save. But take a listen at a couple of these points.
  First of all, ulcer surgery has become a relic of the past. New 
drugs, Nexium, Prilosec, other things we have seen advertised, really 
have ended up treating ulcers so well that surgical procedures to 
correct ulcers has fallen, and today it is really a thing of the past.
  Medicines also reduce hospitalizations and surgery for heart disease. 
Drugs that reduce, for example, cholesterol levels and other things 
that in the past had been an automatic admission to a hospital and 
bypass surgery and angioplasty now we find are going down.
  Medications to treat Alzheimer's diseases. Medications that have also 
worked out there to improve the cognitive functioning over time and 
keeping people out of long-term care and nursing care longer.
  Also, listen to this, overall new medicines play a significant role 
in the life expectancy gains made in the U.S. and around the world. 
Recent research published in the Journal of Health Affairs concludes 
that new medicines generated 40 percent of the 2-year gain in life 
expectancy achieved in 52 countries between 1986 and 2000. In other 
words, we are not only providing medications that are affordable, but 
medications are now there that providing better and longer life for 
many seniors.
  The list goes on with so many more, cancer drugs, drugs to treat 
AIDS, HIV, drugs that prevent stroke, that improve quality of life of 
children. There is a wide range.
  But the main thing is before the Medicaid prescription drug plan came 
into effect, so many seniors, well, it was much like window shopping. 
You could look in the shop and admire the merchandise, but you couldn't 
go in to get it. Now that has changed. And that is a message that we 
need to be telling across America as we are doing tonight and our 
colleagues are going to do during this break.
  It is of no value, as a matter of fact, it is a negative value and of 
questionable ethical value I think sometimes if people only spend their 
time criticizing the glitches that have been in the program, as with 
any program that occurs, whether it is a public or private program, 
criticizing it, standing on the outside and frightening seniors, 
frightening seniors into thinking that because there was complexities 
and difficulties, therefore they should not sign up.
  I worry about this, Mr. Speaker. I worry because when I have held 
town meetings and I have heard seniors say ``I heard this is difficult; 
I don't think I can understand it so I have been holding off doing 
it,'' my worry in those circumstances, when the people are just playing 
politics with patients and frightening seniors away from this program, 
what happens if a senior needed medication and they did not get it 
because someone frightened them away?
  The point is, if one dials 1-800-Medicare, they can talk to someone 
who is helpful. If they go on to web sites, Medicare.gov, they can get 
the information that they need. They can sit down with a family member 
or friends. And many drugstores, many pharmacists throughout the Nation 
will provide the kind of consultation free of charge to help seniors 
walk through this. But they need their name, address, their Social 
Security number, the names of the drugs they are on, the dosage levels 
they take, the prices they pay.
  And don't just compare what it is today when you have the deductibles 
and copays. Look at what happens to the long-term costs throughout the 
year and look at those prices and determine which of the many plans 
available are the best ones for you. That is the message we should be 
telling seniors.
  You know, so often in America we criticize that costs go up when 
people do not have a choice. Here with Medicare, people do have a 
choice. They have a choice of looking through many, several plans. They 
have a choice of doing nothing at all, quite frankly. But it is 
something that is available to seniors. And the main thing about this 
is having the availability of medications which can be lifesaving and 
life extending and help the quality of life, make the difference 
between someone who may be bound up in a nursing home and someone who 
is still at their home, those are the kinds of stories that Americans 
need to be talking about.
  While there are those criticizing frightening seniors, let's remember 
this. Instead of frightening seniors, we should be thinking this: 27 
million seniors have signed up for this program so far, and many more 
will sign up in the next few weeks. Those 27 million seniors can't all 
be wrong. And instead of politicians mocking them and mocking the 
program, maybe, just maybe, we would all do better to link our arms and 
say let's do what we can to help every senior get the medications they 
need. And even if they don't need them now, to sign up for a program, 
just like you don't need homeowner's insurance today if your house 
isn't on fire, you don't need automobile insurance today if you haven't 
had an accident, but you have it there in case you do.
  Sometimes with low costs in Pennsylvania, I know it can be as little 
as $10 a month. Someone can at least have the piece of mind of knowing 
it is there when they need it. These are the things we need, Mr. 
Chairman. And to my colleague, Dr. Gingrey, I am so pleased that you 
have done so much to help seniors throughout the Nation know this and 
help our colleagues know this.
  There is the deadline coming up next month for seniors to sign up, 
and it is good news that so many seniors are looking towards that 
deadline to sign up. Some have waited a little bit and want to see some 
glitches out of the program. Many of those are being addressed now. I 
certainly congratulate the Secretary of Health and Human Services for 
all of the work he has been doing to get this message out.
  But we are not done, and as colleagues we need to be working together 
for the sake of our patients. Let's stop playing political games and 
really do what is right and decent and honorable for America's seniors.
  I yield back to the gentleman from Georgia, and I thank you so much 
for sharing the time.

                              {time}  2215

  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Murphy, thank you so much for that and for your 
insights.
  As I was standing here listening to Mr. Murphy, I cannot help but, 
Mr. Speaker, wanting to go back just for a moment to this press release 
of March 9, 2000, from the Bill Clinton White House. There were a 
couple of things that I did not mention that I want to read to you 
before we yield to Representative Drake.

[[Page H1667]]

  In this press release it says, and this is one of the bullet points, 
``Consistent with broader reform. The addition of a Medicare drug 
benefit should be considered as part of an overall plan to strengthen 
and modernize Medicare. Medicare will face the same demographic strain 
as Social Security when the baby boom generation retires. Improving 
benefits is only one step in preparing Medicare for this new century's 
challenges.''
  I will say one thing about the Democrats, they are pretty consistent 
because they opposed any changes to Social Security as well. In fact, 
this is exactly what they called for but, once again, as I said at the 
outset, they could not deliver and it is killing them. But 
unfortunately, their continuing rhetoric runs the risk of killing some 
of our seniors, the six or so million of them, who need this benefit. 
And it is just shameful. Shameless, as Garth Brooks sings the title of 
one of my favorite songs. But they keep on. But hopefully maybe over 
the next couple of weeks, maybe during this 2-week recess they will get 
religion. It is certainly a time for religion. And they will understand 
that it is time to stop playing footsie with our seniors and misleading 
them and trying to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure at this time to introduce my colleague 
for her remarks, the gentlewoman from the Second District of Virginia 
(Mrs. Drake). She is a freshman but you would not know that. Her 
experience and the things that she has done in a short period of time 
in this body, on our side of the aisle, has just been amazing. She is a 
member of the House Armed Service Committee. She is passionate about 
veterans health care and health care for our military. So it is indeed 
an honor to have Representative Drake with us tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Virginia.
  Mrs. DRAKE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman for that 
very kind introduction and also for the opportunity to come and talk 
about such a wonderful program. You used the term that it is the 
modernization of Medicare, and often we only talk about the 
prescription drug benefit and seldom do we hear that we now have 
welcomed to Medicare checkups for our seniors as they are entering into 
Medicare.
  But I would like to take a moment first and thank all of the people 
across America who have worked so hard to bring this program to our 
seniors, to explain it, so that our seniors have the information and 
can make the best choice for them. I know that the CMS employees have 
worked very hard. Our Agencies on Aging, our Senior Services Agencies 
have already been side-by-side with us in Virginia working, and many 
Members of Congress have been holding meetings since last fall.
  Now, of course I have seen a great number of increase in people once 
we got into the first of the year after last fall. But I would also 
like to thank our pharmacists. I have had town hall meetings where 
pharmacists have come. I have had people in the Second District tell me 
they go to the pharmacy at their drugstore, leave their information 
they have filled out with their pharmacists, come back later and the 
pharmacist has run the program for them.
  Well, as you said, I am a freshman so I was not involved in the 
debate or the vote in 2003, but by holding meetings throughout the 
district I have learned an incredible amount about this program, and I 
have heard what our seniors are concerned about and certainly I have 
read the newspaper articles that say it is a confusing program. I would 
disagree with that completely. But I didn't know that not only were our 
seniors hearing from Medicare, they were hearing from me, and they were 
hearing from all of the 18 companies in Virginia that offer 42 
programs. And I think that was one of the concerns in 2003, was would 
companies step up, would they offer this? And what we have seen 
overwhelmingly is yes, companies have stood up. Companies have created 
competition. They have reduced the price on the programs.
  Our seniors have not only a voluntary program in this Medicare 
program, if they choose to do exactly what they are doing and do not 
want the program that is entirely up to them as long, in my mind, that 
they know there are other options out there for them that are certainly 
much less expensive. And I know that the underlying premise when this 
was passed was that if we keep people well our overall health costs 
would be less. And as Congressman Murphy just told us, it is much 
cheaper to provide a prescription drug for heart disease than it is to 
do heart surgery.

  We have also heard the stories in 2003 about our seniors who either 
were not eating, were not heating their homes or were not buying their 
prescription drugs. I commend Congress for passing this legislation and 
all the people that have worked to put it in place. 42 million Medicare 
recipients and of that we know we are at 27, 28 million people right 
now. Six million do not need to sign up because they have as good or 
better coverage through a better plan. And our goal between now and May 
15 is find those other 6 million people and make sure they know about 
the program.
  Some of the things I have learned in the district, first of all, 
seniors did not understand that this is available to everyone. There is 
no income qualification. If you are eligible for Medicare you are 
eligible for this program.
  I had one couple come just to ask me one question and they raised 
their hands early in the program and the man said, I have a wonderful 
health care coverage through my employer. I am retired. He said, but 
when I die my wife cannot continue in the program. So what does she 
need to do? And the answer was she is completely covered. When she 
loses that coverage, then she can go into Medicare part D with no 
penalty and she can go in within 60 days of losing that coverage. So 
little things like that.
  One man raised his hands and he said, I was talking to my insurance 
agent, because it is important to remember that Medicare part D is not 
a government program. It is private sector insurance policy with a 
reduced premium because of the Federal Government. He said, my 
insurance agent told me it was okay to buy a plan that didn't cover my 
prescriptions. And I said, no, that is the wrong answer. You call that 
agent today and say your Member of Congress says you may not buy his 
plan until he gets your prescription drugs.
  And what our seniors will find if they call, come to one of the 
seminars, we have asked people in our district to feel free to call us. 
We are happy to get them in the right place. But if you sit down at the 
computer, and I have done it myself, and I just go to www.medicare.gov 
and you scroll down very slowly and you do not go off into space 
somewhere on the left-hand side of the screen, you just keep scrolling 
down. Answer the questions. Put in the information and, most 
importantly, what are the drugs that you take, and that will sort 
through all the programs and give you the very best options.
  I stopped and visited a friend on New Year's Eve. She had recently 
lost her husband and I thought that would probably be a tough time of 
the year for her. While I was there I asked the question I seemed to 
ask all seniors today and that is, what are you doing about Medicare 
part D? When I asked I was surprised that she had no prescription drug 
coverage. And she said, I only take one prescription. It is $78 a month 
and I am not going to do anything. And I said, well, there are choices 
out there and maybe you should call or you should write and you should 
get the information.
  She said, I have already done that and she had the chart laid out of 
three plans that covered her drug. As she talked to me and looked at 
the plans, it became very apparent that there was one plan that would 
cost her $25 a month, $35 for her prescription, and she was going to 
save $28 a month just by signing up for that plan and that makes the 
assumption she won't take any additional drugs over the course of this 
year.
  I think it is important, and you have talked about the May 15 date, 
and our seniors I think are well aware that since this is a private 
sector insurance policy and it has open enrollment, it has penalties. 
If you do not sign up in time, just like a lot of other insurance 
products, there will be a penalties after May 15. But the other thing 
that is so important to remember is that if you do not sign up, May 15 
enrollment is closed until November 15 and then you

[[Page H1668]]

can sign up for January 1. So our seniors could be facing 7 months of 
not being able to get into the program simply because they didn't 
realize that. They didn't understand what their real choices were.
  So I applaud everyone who is working hard to tell them. Thank you for 
holding this tonight. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk. 
There are lots of success stories in the Second District. And I know 
you have other Members that want to talk about it as well. So thank you 
for giving me the opportunity. I certainly am grateful. I know our 
seniors are once they are signed into the plan for what this plan 
offers to them.
  When I talk to people my age or their parents, because they will come 
to our meetings, their first question is, How do I get it? My answer 
is, You have to be 65. So thank you very much.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman so much for being 
with us tonight and I want to maybe expand just a little bit on her 
comments in regard to the penalty, as she explained it very carefully 
as to why that is necessary part of an insurance program.
  By the way, Mr. Speaker, that is the exact same situation that exists 
with Medicare part B. Medicare part B was there in 1965 but it was the 
optional part. I think former President Truman was the first person to 
actually voluntarily sign up for part B, the doctor part where it is 
premium based, and the individual Medicare beneficiary pays 25 percent 
of the costs and the taxpayer and Medicare, if you will, pays 75 
percent.
  I will bet you, Mr. Speaker, I will bet you that 98, 99 percent of 
seniors voluntarily sign up for part B and they do it within the 6-
month window of opportunity because if they go beyond that then just 
like in this part D, because a person on part D is an example, as 
Representative Drake pointed out. If they do not sign up for it and 
they go beyond the sign-up period, and then all of the sudden they get 
sick and they go from taking that one drug a month at $78 that she 
talked about to taking five at $5,000 a month, then they should pay 
more for their premium. So it is very important and it is not a 
punitive thing, but it is there to make the program work.
  Mr. Speaker, we are again honored by one of our colleagues who has 
served in this House. I think this is his fourth term, and I am talking 
about the gentleman from Minnesota who I think very soon after November 
will be the United States Senator from Minnesota, and I am speaking 
none other than Representative Mark Kennedy.
  Representative Kennedy, thank you for being with us tonight. I yield 
to you at this time.
  Mr. KENNEDY of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his 
leadership on this issue and all that he has done to make sure that 
that our seniors understand how important this program is and how it 
can really benefit them. Too many are out there trying to just dish the 
program and spread really complicating lies about it and scaring 
seniors. That is not what we ought to be doing to our seniors.
  We ought to be out there making sure they understand the benefits 
that can be available to them. Through the efforts of you, so many in 
the community, as was mentioned, more than 27 million seniors are now 
enrolled in the Medicare part D prescription drug benefit. They are 
seeing hundreds, even thousands of dollars of savings. In fact, CMS, 
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, have projected that the 
benefit will save the average senior $1,100 this year. Meanwhile, the 
AARP and others have found that the benefit lowers the cost of drugs 
for seniors by an average of 44 percent, with low income seniors seeing 
price reductions of up to 90 percent.
  Better yet, the average senior's monthly premium is 32 percent below 
the average estimate, a third. This terrific reduction is evidence that 
the market base competition used by Medicare part D is working to drive 
down prices and increase the benefits for our seniors. At the same 
time, CMS has reported that the projected costs of administering the 
benefit has come down $7.6 billion in 2006 from what they originally 
estimated, and States will see at least $700 million in additional 
savings this year.
  All of this is very good news. However, the May 15 deadline for 
eligible seniors to sign up for the plan without penalty is fast 
approaching. Well, the program's enrollment has surpassed earlier 
estimates. There is now still more that needs to be done. That is why 
it is important that community activists and we as Members of Congress 
have been holding sign-up forms in our districts to spread the facts 
about this great new voluntary program.

                              {time}  2230

  These forums bring together CMS, trained volunteers, seniors and 
their families together in an environment where questions can be 
answered and seniors can become informed about which plan best fits 
their needs so they can begin saving on their drug costs.
  I was pleased to hold two large forums in my district in Minnesota 
earlier this year, and I am working hard with other groups to help hold 
forums of their own. I want to thank those community groups who work in 
towns and cities all over this Nation to make sure seniors know their 
options. These events and other forums are essential to making sure 
that seniors who want to sign up for the Medicare drug plan are able to 
do so before May 15.
  Mr. Speaker, it is easy for me to stand here and talk about the 
benefits of this plan, but do not just take it from me. Take it from 
the seniors who are realizing, in some cases, hundreds of dollars in 
savings every month. Countless seniors are reporting that they now have 
more money to use for other things, like paying for their bills or 
visiting their grandchildren.
  Before the Republican Congress acted, we heard terrible stories of 
seniors forced to choose between life-saving medication and food. We 
heard these stories years, but we never saw action from our friends on 
the other side of the aisle, but we acted. Seniors are saving as a 
result.
  I encourage my colleagues, and I thank Dr. Gingrey for his leadership 
on this, to continue to educate seniors in their districts before this 
May 15 deadline so every senior has access to affordable drug coverage, 
and I would turn it back over to the distinguished doctor from Georgia 
to continue to talk about what kind of benefit seniors are getting and 
why it is important that we take the time to make sure they understand 
before the May 15 deadline.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say I thank the 
gentleman, and I think the seniors are very fortunate, whether Mark 
Kennedy is serving in this United States House of Representatives or 
representing them in the other body soon as a senator in the United 
States Senate. They are indeed fortunate to have his compassion and 
caring attitude, and I commend him for that.
  Mr. Speaker, I think what I would like to do here for a minute is 
sort of frame this problem, before we delivered on this prescription 
drug benefit, to make sure that our colleagues and anybody within 
shouting or listening distance might possibly be watching our 
proceedings tonight, did they understand the situation that existed 
before we delivered on this promise of a prescription drug benefit part 
D under the Medicare program. Where were the seniors getting their 
prescription drug coverage before this plan?
  Well, this first slide, Mr. Speaker, I want to make sure that my 
colleagues can see this. There were a number of people. This is about 
26 percent, an estimate of seniors that had employment-based plans. We 
talked about that. We have talked about the fact that people worked 25, 
30 years for a company, and part of their retirement benefit may be a 
little pension hopefully and a little health care benefit, in many 
cases to include a prescription drug coverage.
  Now, there has been concern among these 26 percent because even 
before we brought forward this well-conceived, well-thought-out plan, 
in fact it was thought out pretty well, as I pointed out earlier on 
March 9, 2000, by President Clinton and the Democratic leadership in 
the Senate. They just did not deliver on it, but the 26 percent were 
concerned because employers were dropping these plans or changing the 
guidelines. All of a sudden a senior gets a letter in the mail, and it 
says, oh, by the way, first of the year, you are going to have to pay, 
instead of 20 percent of the premium, you are going to

[[Page H1669]]

have to pay 30, and oh, by the way, it is no longer going to cover 
prescription drugs or we have got a very limited formulary; it is not 
going to cover your hearing aid or your eyeglasses or whatever or even 
worse than that, Mr. Speaker, would be the ultimate dear John letter. 
That is a letter, that pink slip, that says, guess what, we are 
dropping your coverage; we are going to completely drop your 
prescription coverage or may, in fact, drop the whole health insurance 
coverage, and this has happened.
  It was happening, and under this plan, though, to prevent that, to 
try to stop that, we, in designing this plan, this Republican majority, 
this President, under our leadership, we said, look, we will help you, 
John Q. Employer, if you will continue these plans and you will not 
renege on these promises. We will reimburse you, really, for some of 
the cost of those plans so that you do not drop them.
  Again, I go back to my Clinton press release. One of the things that 
they called for in 2000, optional of course for all beneficiaries as we 
said earlier, but also provides financial incentives for employers to 
develop and retain their retiree health coverage. That is what Clinton 
and the Democrats called for. This is another thing that they have been 
railing against, the fact that we have incentivized these employers not 
to drop these plans.
  Well, okay, 26 percent have employment-based plans. Three percent 
individually purchase policies. That would be like my mom, Helen 
Gingrey, my precious mom who has a medigap policy, but now, 
unfortunately, the prescription part of that was so expensive that she 
had to drop it. Of course, the Department of Veterans Affairs and 
TRICARE, we talked about that. That is about 3 percent. About 12 
percent are covered by the State Medicaid program. Some are more 
generous than others, I think very generous in my State of Georgia, and 
then some other State-based programs and other sources, 6 percent.
  But the real eye-opener on this chart, on this pie graph, is that 40 
percent before this plan, 40 percent were getting prescription drug 
coverage out of their own pocket. In other words, they had no coverage, 
and they had no bargaining power, Mr. Speaker. They simply went to the 
drugstore and they paid sticker price, you know, like buying an 
automobile and not getting any discount because you did not know to ask 
for one. They had no clout, one individual and elderly, frail senior, 
and so they were paying sticker price, and that was the problem. That 
is why we knew that we had to do something, especially for the 
neediest, especially for those who literally were breaking pills, 
running out of medication, not going to the drugstore because they are 
embarrassed that they could not pay.
  It is an act of compassion on our part, really, for the neediest 
seniors especially, and of course, now, the good news is that, and this 
next slide shows, a total of 27 million seniors now have coverage under 
Medicare Part D.
  I see that the gentlewoman from Virginia has been kind enough to stay 
with us, despite the lateness of the hour, and I want to yield a little 
time to her and maybe we can get engaged in a little bit of a colloquy 
in talking about the some of the things that we both notice in our 
district.
  Mrs. DRAKE. Mr. Speaker, I thank you for that, and you brought up the 
issue of your mother, and that is a very important thing for us seniors 
to be thinking about because many of our seniors did buy the 
supplements that you are talking about that gave them some health care 
coverage as well as their prescription drug benefits.
  My daughter's mother-in-law has one of those, and she is paying over 
$300 a month for it. So we went online, and we looked at what can she 
get today under this new program. So I think it is important that 
people like your mother do not think that because they have one of 
those plans from before that that is good enough, that they can go on 
today and save an incredible amount of money. You can go into plans 
today that give you the health care coverage, as well as the 
prescription drug coverage, but there, again, with that reduced 
premium, my daughter's mother-in-law is going to save over $100 a month 
by going in and revamping that policy.
  I know a lot of our seniors got kind of hung up on the thought of 
deductibles and things like that, but there again, you need to 
understand that when Medicare set the plan, when Congress passed the 
plan, they put a cap on what a deductible could be of $250, and many of 
these plans have no deductibles. We keep talking about a donut hole 
where there will be a gap in coverage at a certain point, and what I 
say in my meetings is, if you did not have any coverage, you have been 
living in a black hole. You can pick a plan that has no gap in coverage 
based on what you want to pay monthly and how to streamline it for you.
  The other point I wanted to make as you continue on is one of the 
questions I have really been asked is what if I take no medication. 
Isn't that a wonderful thing for our seniors today? I always look at 
them and say I bet you bought a homeowner's policy and you have 
insurance on your car and you buy those before you need them. Same 
thing for our seniors with prescription drug coverage.
  When they go in and look at these programs, there are so many 
options, low-price options, that it is worth that for the peace of mind 
to know that next year when you go to open enrollment, you can always 
change the plan, upgrade the plan, but you are in the plan.
  So I thank you for letting me talk about your mother.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman and my mother 
thanks the gentlewoman, but you have made such a great point about the 
option, and Representative Drake talked about the number of plans in 
Virginia. It is kind of similar in Georgia. There may be almost 50 
plans, but there are only 18 companies.
  But what that means is companies, good companies, offer more than one 
plan, so that seniors have the option, as she described, to say, well, 
if somebody says well I do not need that, I have got the Methuselah 
gene, that means you live a long, healthy life. A person like that 
might say, well, I do not take anything, I buy a few over-the-counter 
drugs a year and I bet I do not spend $200 a year. Well, God bless 
them. They are lucky. They are fortunate, but what Representative Drake 
is talking about is that very next week may be the time that the chest 
pain strikes and all of the sudden you have a coronary bypass or stints 
put in and you are on five or six medications. That happened to yours 
truly a couple or 3 years ago, and then all of the sudden you are kind 
of stuck.
  So what the gentlewoman from Virginia was saying is look, seniors, if 
you are in that fortunate situation, do not roll the dice on this 
because you could come up snake eyes. Go ahead and take one of these 
plans where the monthly premium is 20 bucks a month. There is no 
deductible. There is a donut hole, but you are not worried about that 
donut hole because you are blessed with that Methuselah gene. Then 
later on, as she so correctly pointed out, if something does happen, 
then you can switch, and you do not have to pay a penalty because you 
did not sign up; you did not roll the dice and come up snake eyes.
  Then the corollary to that is say someone who has a lot of 
prescription drug costs, they are already on six or eight drugs and 
they are spending $10,000 a year, and they look at that and they say 
hey, look, give me one, I will pay a higher monthly premium, I may pay 
60 bucks a month premium, but that plan gives me coverage in that so-
called donut hole. That is important because they are already spending 
a lot of money, and so you tailor these. The companies are actually 
doing that. I think it is a great thing.
  Mrs. DRAKE. That is what is so important is that our seniors have 
choices, and you mentioned our veterans. I just wanted to finish up 
with them and let you finish up this evening and to remind our veterans 
that they are the only group of people that keep their veterans 
benefits and can purchase into Medicare Part D as well. So that gives 
them the ability, if there are medications they need that are not 
covered by the VA, that they can be covered by Medicare Part D. So I 
want to make sure that they understand that since they are the only 
group that can have both.
  So certainly thank you again for letting me be here. Thank you for 
letting me talk about your mom and talking

[[Page H1670]]

about our veterans, and there are so many things to talk about with the 
program. I would like to encourage everyone, if there is a workshop in 
their area, to please attend because it is amazing the questions and 
the answers and the much better understanding and that you realize this 
is a good product for seniors. The price is so much lower, and it gives 
them so many choices.
  Mr. GINGREY. Well, I thank the gentlewoman, and I know she is looking 
forward to going back into the 2nd District of Virginia tomorrow, and I 
am sure she is one of the many Republican Members who have got those 
town hall meetings scheduled to get those remaining 6 or 8 million 
signed up, and I thank her.
  At the outset, I said do not just take our word for it, and I have 
been expounding a little bit for the last 50 minutes, but I did want to 
give some anecdotal stories, and let us do that for a moment, Mr. 
Speaker.

                              {time}  2245

  Barbara W. From El Mirage, Arizona, had no prescription drug 
coverage. She spent more than $2,600 a year on medication just this 
past year. She wanted an inexpensive plan with a low premium, so she 
did enroll in the part D plan, and it only had a $6.14 monthly premium. 
In 2006, she will save $1,800, nearly $200 a month, the lady from 
Arizona. God bless her.
  Here is another, Mr. Speaker. Sandra S. from Woodland Hills, 
California. In 2005, she spent $4,600 per year on prescription drugs. 
She read about Medicare part D in the Los Angeles Times. I am sure they 
weren't praising it, but thank goodness she read about it. She called 
1-800-MEDICARE for help. She wanted a plan with no donut hole. We just 
talked about that a minute ago. Her plan has a $50 monthly premium, no 
deductible, no gap in coverage and, of course as all those plans, it 
has that catastrophic coverage. So that if you really get into a year 
where you have out-of-pocket expenses of $3,600, out of your own 
pocket, then after that, the insurance pays 95 percent and you only pay 
5 percent. What a godsend. Total savings for Sandra, $2,400 a year.
  I think we have a couple more that I wanted to show. Barbara L. from 
Kemp, Texas. In 2005, spent $2,100 on prescription drugs. She enrolled 
in an AARP part D plan. They have a very good plan. So in 2006 she 
expects to pay $360. Barbara saved $1,740.
  Well, I could go on and on, but let me just say one other thing, 
because I mentioned AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons. 
I am proudly one of them. I am not retired, but I was eligible and got 
my card at age 50, so I have had it a while. Thirty-seven million 
seniors are members. And AARP is not typically a conservative 
organization, supportive of Republican ideas. More typically, they are 
supportive of the Democrat line of thought, and yet they have supported 
this program.
  My colleagues on the other side of the aisle came down to the well, 
Member after Member after Member, telling members of AARP to tear up 
their cards and throw them out the window. Thank God for AARP.
  In fact, we had a press conference today, Mr. Speaker, talking about 
the plan and what the Republican Members are going to do when we go 
back to our districts, and we have 76, count them, 76 organizations 
that are supporting this program. The AIDS Institute, Alzheimer's 
Association, American Geriatric Society, American Pharmacists 
Association, Association of Black Cardiologists, National Hispanic 
Medical Association, National Alliance For the Mentally Ill, National 
Alliance for Hispanic Health, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, 
and Easter Seals. I could go on and on, but there are 76.
  Let me talk briefly as we close about groups misleading seniors about 
Medicare part D. In fact, they were out there protesting our press 
conference on the terrace of the Cannon Building this afternoon. Guess 
who was there chanting against seniors? MoveOn.org and far left shadow 
groups.
  So let's see. Doctors, pharmacists, hospitals, health care providers 
and AARP, versus MoveOn.org, Nancy Pelosi, and other far-left groups. 
Who do you trust with senior health? I think the answer is pretty 
obvious, Mr. Speaker, and I am proud to be part of the solution and not 
part of the problem.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I want to yield very quickly to the 
chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, my chairman, and I am 
talking about the gentleman from California, Representative Duncan 
Hunter. I gladly yield to the chairman.
  Mr. HUNTER. I thank my friend for yielding, Mr. Speaker, and I would 
just take a minute. I have been watching my friend and the gentlewoman 
from Virginia (Mrs. Drake), and I just wanted to tell you how proud I 
am of the job that you do representing your districts and representing 
those great contingencies of American veterans and active duty service 
people in your district.
  I wanted to say, and I know you have been talking about health care, 
but I wanted to talk about another type of security just for one 
second, and that is national security. And I know my friend has been to 
Iraq, and I think he is going again soon, and many other Members of 
this body, Democrat and Republican, are going. Now is the time when 
America should take heart.
  I have watched the newspapers and the mood of this House as of late, 
and I feel, especially coming from the Democrat side, the message is 
one that I have seen before. It is a message that we saw in the 1980s, 
when Ronald Reagan faced down the Soviet Union, and you had calls from 
the far left to the effect that President Reagan was going to have a 
war with the Soviets, that he needed to acquiesce, he needed to engage, 
even as they ringed our allies in Europe with SS-20 missiles. And yet 
Ronald Reagan stood tough. He stood for a policy of peace through 
strength. And at one point the Soviets picked up the phone and said, 
can we talk? And when we talked, we talked about the disassembly of the 
Soviet empire.
  Similarly he stood tough in Central America, and today those two 
nations in question, El Salvador and Nicaragua, have fragile 
democracies because of America. Today, we are providing that military 
shield in Iraq while we put this fragile government together, a 
government based on something new in that part of the world: Freedom 
and representative government.
  You know, this has been done on the shoulders of the great American 
servicemen and women who serve us in that very troubled and difficult 
part of the world. And their job is dusty and dirty and sometimes 
bloody, but it is worthwhile. And what they are giving to us, if we can 
stabilize that country and that neighborhood and have a country that 
has a benign relationship towards the United States, will accrue to the 
benefit of generations of Americans.
  So now is the time to take heart. Now is the time to not fail. Now is 
the time to stand firm, and I want to thank the gentlemen for his work 
on Armed Services and the Rules Committee, for the great work he does 
in that regard.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman so much in these 
closing seconds. And of course we know of the work of the esteemed 
chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Duncan 
Hunter. What a wonderful way to close this hour.
  What is more important than the defense of this Nation, as this great 
patriot just described, and providing health care for our precious 
seniors?

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