[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 13340-13341]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, tomorrow I intend to introduce bipartisan 
prescription drug legislation with the senior Republican on the Senate 
Finance Committee's Subcommittee on Health, Ms. Olympia Snowe of Maine. 
For more than 3 years, Senator Snowe and I have teamed up in an effort 
to address this prescription drug issue, of which the Presiding Officer 
is acutely aware. It is one of the most vexing and contentious of all 
issues. We have been trying to address it in a bipartisan fashion. 
Perhaps no issue in the last political campaign generated more 
controversy, more attack ads on both sides, and more bitterness rather 
than thoughtful discussion than the question of prescription drugs for 
seniors.
  The reason Senator Snowe and I are moving now with the introduction 
of our bipartisan legislation tomorrow is that we are hopeful that when 
the Senate Finance Committee takes up the prescription drug legislation 
issue at this month, the legislation we have put together can serve as 
a template, a beginning, for a bipartisan effort to address this issue.
  Our legislation marries what I think are the core principles that 
Democratic Members of this body have advocated with certain key 
principles that Republicans have felt very strongly about as well. I 
want to discuss briefly tonight how our legislation does that.
  The legislation that I drafted with Senator Snowe, for example, has a 
defined benefit, which is absolutely key for the Nation's senior 
citizens. The alternative is what is known as a defined contribution--a 
sort of a voucher which you hand an older person, or a family with sort 
of a wish and a hope that maybe they will get meaningful benefits.
  What Senator Snowe and I have done--which has been extraordinarily 
important to Senator Daschle, and correctly so, in my view--is to make 
sure that under our legislation every senior would get these defined 
benefits.
  Second, our legislation ensures that the program is inside the 
Medicare Program. It is a part of the Medicare Program because, as the 
Presiding Officer of the Senate knows, the alternative is to in effect 
begin the privatization of Medicare and the prescription drug benefit. 
It is essential that this program be an integral part of Medicare. That 
is something that Senator Snowe and I have felt very strongly about.
  The third part of the legislation ensures that older people will have 
bargaining power to help make prescription drugs in this country more 
affordable. Older people today are in effect hit by a double whammy. 
Prescription drugs are not covered by the Medicare Program, of course, 
and they haven't been since the program began in 1965.
  When an older person isn't able to afford prescription drugs and has 
no private coverage, when they go to a pharmacy--in effect that senior 
citizen is subsidizing the person who gets their prescription drugs 
through a group plan. An individual who is fortunate enough to have 
bargaining power because they have insurance coverage, in effect is 
subsidized by the older person who has no coverage at all.
  Our legislation ensures that older people would have an opportunity 
to have real bargaining power. This is key for the millions of older 
people who spend well over a third of their income on prescription 
drugs.
  Finally, our legislation is voluntary. We want to make sure that the 
message goes out far and wide that any older person who is comfortable 
with their prescription drug coverage today can just keep it and in no 
way would be required or coerced to alter the prescription drug 
coverage with which they are comfortable. If they have a retirement 
package, or in some way get this assistance, our legislation would not 
in any way alter what they are receiving.
  Having had the privilege of working with the Presiding Officer on 
health care legislation over the years, I am pleased that I have a 
chance tonight to describe our bipartisan bill with you in the Chair.
  I think we all understand that there is no one who has studied the 
health care system today--not a Democrat or a Republican--if they were 
redesigning Medicare, who wouldn't include a prescription drug benefit.
  A physician in Washington County in my home State of Oregon wrote me 
not long ago saying that he put a senior citizen in the hospital for 6 
weeks because that person couldn't afford their medicine on an 
outpatient basis. Medicare Part A, of course--the hospital portion of 
the Medicare Program--covers prescription drugs. If the older person 
goes into the hospital, Medicare Part A will write out that check, no 
questions asked. Medicare Part B, of course, has no outpatient 
prescription drug benefit.
  What happened in Washington County, in my home State of Oregon, 
recently is that the Medicare Program probably paid out $50,000 or 
$60,000 for the costs associated with hospitalizing a patient to get 
prescription drug coverage rather than making this benefit available on 
an outpatient basis the way I and Senator Snowe and the Presiding 
Officer have sought to do for so many years.
  Very often, when I am out around the country, people come up to me. 
They say: Ron, can this country afford prescription drug coverage? We 
are going to have this demographic sunami. Are we going to be able to 
afford to cover all of these older people?
  I think what we have learned here is that very clearly this country 
can't afford not to cover prescription drugs. We can't afford to allow 
the repetition of what happened in Washington County in Oregon and 
across this country where so many older people could have, with modest 
prescription drug assistance, prevented much more serious illnesses. 
And I could cite one drug after another tonight.
  Strokes are a very important health concern for older people. The 
cost of caring for a person who has had a stroke can be $125,000 or 
$150,000. But we have many drugs available that help prevent strokes 
that cost $800 or $1,000 a year.
  So the hour is late, and I am not going to go through one example 
after another. But I would say, what Senator Snowe and I are trying to 
do is break the gridlock on this issue. I have been at it for more than 
3 years now with Senator Snowe. We got a majority of the Senate, in the 
last Congress, to vote for funding a prescription drug program that, 
frankly, is much broader than what we are talking about now. Senator 
Snowe and I were able to get over 50 Members of the Senate to vote for 
a tobacco tax to cover a prescription drug program.
  We are not talking about that at all here. In the budget resolution 
we have

[[Page 13341]]

$300 billion to start a prescription drug program. I believe a properly 
designed prescription drug program would cause future Congresses to 
make available additional funds to meet this pressing need. The 
challenge today is to look at some of the sensible ideas that Senator 
Daschle, the majority leader, has advocated, such as a defined benefit, 
ensuring that the program is inside Medicare, providing bargaining 
power for older people, and marrying the sensible ideas Senator Daschle 
has talked about with some of the Republican ideas that promote choice 
and competition.
  As I have said to my colleagues on other occasions, we have a 
precedent for doing that. One of the accomplishments of which I am 
proudest is to have been the sponsor, when I was in the House of 
Representatives, of the Medigap legislation which really drained the 
swamp of so many questionable private insurers selling senior citizens 
policies that really were not worth the paper on which they were 
written.
  I remember back in the days when I was Co-director of the Oregon Gray 
Panthers, we would visit seniors and they would have a shoe box full of 
these policies. They would have seven or eight private policies. They, 
in effect, were wasting money on junk that could have been used to meet 
their heating bills or their other health needs. We drained that swamp, 
and we did it through a Medigap law, by ensuring that seniors had 
meaningful choices and strong consumer protections.
  So we have an example of how you can create choice and alternatives 
and promote competition, and do it in the context of the Medicare 
Program. You do not have to go out and privatize this program that has 
been a lifeline for millions of older people in order to create choice 
and competition. You can do it within the Medicare Program, which is 
what I am seeking to do with the senior Senator from Maine, the ranking 
Republican on the Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, Ms. Olympia 
Snowe.
  Our hope is that when the Senate Finance Committee gets together this 
month, on a bipartisan basis, they will look at our legislation, along 
with the other very good bills that have been introduced. The senior 
Senator from Florida, Mr. Graham, for example, has talked at length 
with me about this issue and has a fine bill. I think there are a 
variety of ways the Senate Finance Committee, under the leadership of 
Senator Baucus, can take these bills and bring the Finance Committee 
Democrats and Republicans together and break this gridlock on a vital 
issue.
  I know of few issues that are more important at this point to 
American families than prescription drugs. I think we all understand 
that with a well crafted prescription drug program, this country can 
take a significant step forward towards meaningful Medicare reform.
  I say to the Presiding Officer, the hour is late, and you have been 
gracious to allow me, along with the Democratic leader, this extra 
time. I intend to keep coming back to this Chamber again and again and 
again throughout this Congress to, in effect, proselytize--I use that 
word deliberately--with my colleague from Maine, Senator Snowe, for a 
bipartisan effort on this issue. It has dragged on too long. There has 
been too much partisan bickering and squabbling surrounding this issue.
  I would like to see just a tiny fraction of the millions of dollars 
that were spent on attack ads during the last political campaign on 
this issue spent on trying to bring Democrats and Republicans--Members 
of Congress across the political spectrum--together on this issue. That 
is what older people deserve.
  Every month that this issue drags on is a month where older people--
who are walking an economic tightrope, having to balance their fuel 
needs against their medical needs--have to worry about how they are 
going to pay for their essentials. The Presiding Officer understands 
that very well. I look forward to working with her and all of our 
colleagues on a bipartisan basis.
  With that, Madam President, I yield the floor.

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