[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18821]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 CONGRESS SHOULD PASS A REAL PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN BEFORE THEY ADJOURN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to 
call my colleagues' attention to passing a real prescription drug plan 
before Congress adjourns. It is ironic that the Presidential candidate 
for the Republican Party has a new slogan about real plans for real 
people. I think we can all agree that senior citizens are real people 
and they need some real help.
  As a registered nurse who has spent countless hours helping senior 
citizens with their medical needs, I can say what these real people 
need. They desperately need Medicare to cover the cost of buying 
lifesaving drugs. As a registered nurse, I had the pleasure of working 
with seniors before coming to Congress. I know firsthand that many of 
them are on fixed incomes and already struggling to buy food and pay 
their rent. I have paid close attention as to what we need to do as a 
nation to help senior citizens. I can say that our seniors simply need 
assistance with purchasing life-sustaining drugs. They simply cannot 
afford the high cost of the drugs now.
  When the big pharmaceutical companies escalate the prices of 
prescription drugs every year at a pace that exceeds the annual level 
of inflation, between 1993 and 1998, spending nationwide for 
prescription drugs increased at an annual rate of 12 percent. This past 
April, I hosted a town hall meeting back in Dallas where I talked with 
constituents, the real people, about the exorbitant cost of 
prescription drugs. And here are some of the other startling statistics 
that were revealed: 85 percent of the seniors fill at least one 
prescription per year for common conditions because for their age such 
as osteoporosis, hypertension, heart attacks, diabetes, or depression; 
seniors nationwide are paying over 130 percent more for essential 
prescriptions than the drug companies'' most favorite customers, the 
HMOs; nearly two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries have no drug coverage 
or unreliable, costly, and limited coverage and must pay these costs 
out-of-pocket; one-third of the Medicare beneficiaries have absolutely 
no coverage for prescription drugs at all.
  What disturbs me even more are the statistics relating to the fat cat 
insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry. Premiums and copays 
are rising; caps of $500 to $1,000 a year are being imposed frequently; 
drug companies' profits were actually three times more than the average 
profits of all other pharmaceutical companies. I understand that we 
have passed one bill that favors the pharmaceutical industry. That is 
not what the people need. The people really need, the real people, need 
a plan that is covered by Medicare because the profits, they talk about 
research, the profits outstrip their research budgets.
  That is not true. The average compensation for a drug company's CEO 
was $22 million a year in 1998. So if we look at all of these facts, we 
have to wonder how the other side could put together the plan that they 
have devised. It gives subsidies to the big insurance companies. It 
seems that penny-pinching actuaries are the other side's idea of real 
people, not to mention the big pharmaceutical companies. It is ironic 
that we have allowed all of this time to lapse and are about to leave 
to go home, and we have forgotten about the real people.
  The American people, including the residents of Dallas, have had 
enough of the other side's stonewalling. The American people do not 
really need smoke and mirrors. They need a real prescription drug 
benefit for seniors, not a phony plan that relies on drug companies and 
insurance profiteers.
  As we head toward the final stretch here, I hope that we can put the 
playing aside, consider that these are really people and consider that 
they really need real relief and pass a Medicare prescription drug 
benefit and bring competition to the drug industry so that drug prices 
can be reduced for the seniors. This is really unconscionable. We are 
talking about people who have retired and who are on fixed incomes. We 
must give them relief. We cannot continue to just play.

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