[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19935]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT

  (Ms. WOOLSEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, many, many of our seniors must choose 
between buying food and buying medicine every day and every week of 
their lives, and we know that that is not right. But what are we doing 
about it? What are we doing in this Congress as we come to the end of 
the 106th Congress?
  My Republican colleagues would suggest that private insurance 
companies take over this issue, but from 1995 to 1999 this country has 
doubled what is spent on prescription drugs, from $65 billion a year to 
$125 billion a year.
  Prescriptions are a fact of life. Do we really believe that private 
insurers are willing to take on the burden of 18 prescription drugs on 
average per year for a senior citizen? Of course not. If it were at all 
profitable, private insurers would already be all over this market.
  Instead, we need to expand Medicare. We need to include the 
guaranteed prescription drug benefits through a good program that has 
been working for us for 30 years.

                          ____________________