[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17222]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              BUSH PROPOSAL ON PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFITS

  (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I would draw our 
colleagues' attention to The New York Times and the Washington Post 
this morning where, after reviewing the Bush proposal on Medicare drug 
benefits, prescription drug benefits for our elderly, they draw the 
conclusion that, in fact, it is no benefit at all for millions of 
modest-income senior citizens in this country.
  In fact, it is a benefit that is illusory. It is a benefit that 
requires us to wait for the governor to put in place a new bureaucracy 
to provide for drug benefits. It is a benefit that can be charged any 
price for its premiums and, as they draw the conclusion, that millions 
and millions of Americans simply will not be able to afford it. 
Therefore, the benefit is of no value to them at all.
  More and more independent reviews of the Bush proposal are drawing 
this same conclusion, that it is only the appearance of a prescription 
drug benefit. It is not in fact a prescription drug benefit and that it 
would rely on the same private insurance companies that today are 
gouging people for health care or withdrawing health care from the 
elderly or denying them the services.
  The one thing the Bush proposal does do is it undermines the current 
Medicare system.

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