[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16884]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kerns). Pursuant to the order of the 
House of January 23, 2002, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. 
Clayton) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, there is a consensus among Members of 
Congress, in fact, I think there is a consensus among the American 
people, as well as the President also says, that Medicare beneficiaries 
should indeed receive prescription assistance. The Congressional Budget 
Office has projected that the cost of providing prescription drugs to 
seniors will certainly be high, and it is unpredictable as to how high 
it will go; but they have said to how the estimate has been made in the 
last year, that by the year 2010 we will be 23 percent higher than what 
we predicted it to be, and already it is too high. Already seniors 
cannot afford that.
  This increases the sense of reality that we cannot make long-term 
predictions nor can we make short-term predictions with accuracy. With 
that reality, what we know with the combined fact that more baby 
boomers are retiring among them, are retiring now, more than ever 
before, they are going to live longer and need more health care; and 
yet their reliance on Medicaid does not give them any assurance for 
that.
  We must ensure that our seniors have the peace and security that they 
need to have access to affordable prescription drugs for maintenance of 
a quality of life.
  We must also work to make sure that they do not deplete their savings 
and what low income they have from their retirement and their Social 
Security in order to provide prescription drugs. My colleagues have 
heard that seniors now have to make the awful election, whether they 
feed themselves or pay the rent or buy prescriptions that they just 
really need for their health; and some of them are making the decision, 
which is harmful to their health, of dividing their daily dosage and 
spreading it so it can go further.
  Our seniors deserve better than that. They are the people who have 
worked to make our country as robust as it is. They have served our 
Nation in a variety of ways, have served on the military to make sure 
we are secure. Certainly, it is not because we do not have the 
technology. It is because we have not found the political will to do 
this.
  In my district, the First Congressional District, our population of 
seniors continues to increase. Consider this: from 1980 through the 
eighties and through the nineties, from the ages of 65 to 84 increased 
by 31 percent. From the 1990s to 2000, there was an additional increase 
of some 16 percent added to that 31 percent. So we are living longer, 
those from the ages of 65 to 84, and also, the mean income is 
approximately $26,800 in my district. That does not allow a lot of 
flexibility of maintaining a quality of life and increasing the cost 
for prescription drugs and other health care.
  In 1996, the average out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs for 
seniors living below the poverty line was $368 for an average cost 
then; but now in 2000 that same index would be 2,000, $386 from 1996 to 
2,000. My colleagues say, well, that is not a lot of money. That is a 
lot of money when the income has not gone up; and when a person retires 
their income is going down, not up, and the increase we give for a 
Social Security benefit certainly does not go into the cost of senior 
citizens. So we need far more money because seniors indeed are not able 
to have the income security to protect them. $463 is the equivalent of 
a mortgage payment that seniors would have to pay. They can no longer 
afford that.
  We need to find ways in which we can help provide for them, and many 
adults are now having to reach back and provide for their senior 
parents as they are also providing for their children because their 
income, the retirement and the Social Security, is not sufficient.
  The very least that Congress could do is to work towards bringing a 
prescription drug benefit that would be part of our Medicare benefit. 
Most elderly receive their primary health assistance through Medicare, 
and I would gather today if we were doing Medicare all over again we 
would make sure there would be a prescription drug provision. Yet 
Medicare does not provide any coverage for any senior's outpatient 
prescription drugs. We almost have to go to the hospital to be there 
and most seniors now have conditions that can be maintained by not 
doing it.
  Mr. Speaker, we have an opportunity, in fact, we have an obligation, 
Mr. Speaker, to make sure we have a prescription drug program that 
works for our seniors and not put up these artificial programs that we 
say that the companies are going to give some rebate. They need 
something they can rely on. To do less would be unworthy of us as a 
great Nation.

                          ____________________