[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16240-16241]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2310
                         MEDICARE MODERNIZATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Garrett). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, again I would like to commend 
the gentleman from New Jersey,

[[Page 16241]]

the gentlewoman from Ohio and the gentleman from Ohio for their 
remarks. I plan to attend the Rules Committee meeting, whenever it is 
called to order, to put forward an amendment, an amendment that I 
believe is much needed. As I said earlier this evening, I believe 
ultimately, Mr. Speaker, that this comes down to cost. For us to have 
the elderly of this country unfairly bear the cost not only of private 
sector plans, Federal Government plans in this country but around the 
globe is just flat out unfair. There is no reason why we cannot do for 
Medicare what the VA does for its veterans. There is no reason why we 
cannot have formularies, why we cannot have pricing. Those who would 
argue that this would amount to price fixing have to come to grips with 
reality, that the price is fixed. In this case it is a price that is 
fixed on the backs of senior citizens across our country, senior 
citizens who, as I said earlier, feel as though they are refugees from 
their own health care plan, who board buses to go to Canada to get 
prices that they are denied here in their own country. Every western 
democracy, every industrialized nation in the world has seen fit to 
leverage the full faith and credit of their governments on behalf of 
their seniors except the United States of America. The preeminent 
military, social, culture and economic leader in the world cannot find 
it within itself to provide senior citizens in this country with a 
benefit they richly deserve and need.
  My proposal is a very simple one. It takes into account what the VA 
is capable to do for veterans. It takes into account what the private 
sector offers, what our own Federal employees are able to receive, what 
you would be able to get as a prescription price if you traveled to 
Canada, and says, take HHS, take the Department of Defense and the VA 
and impacted Federal agencies and have them collectively come up with a 
price that ultimately takes into consideration the need for research 
and development but also the need to come up with a fair and equitable 
price for the elderly. No matter what plan ultimately is conceived, if 
at the center of that plan we do not address the issue of cost, then we 
have gained nothing. And to have a plan and to be able to go back to 
your district and say that we propose a plan that does not take effect 
until 2006 when in the presidential campaign both candidates and every 
Member of this body, I daresay, campaigned on the fact that they were 
going to provide seniors with the prescription drug relief that they 
needed, to renege on that promise is a travesty. To be frozen in 
indifference, indifference to the need and wants of our senior 
citizens, is a sham. We have to speak out about that. Ronald Reagan 
said that facts are a stubborn thing and the fact of the matter is that 
seniors all across this Nation pay a disproportionate amount of their 
moneys to get prescription drugs.
  My father, God rest his soul, used to say to my mother, Jesus, Mary 
and Joseph, Pauline, who won the war? The very nations that we defeated 
in the Second World War provide prescription drug relief for their 
citizens and yet we, the greatest country on the face of the earth, 
cannot find the money. Oh, we have plenty of money to give to the 
wealthiest 1 percent of this country by way of a tax cut, but we cannot 
find the wherewithal to come up with a prescription drug program for 
the greatest generation in America.

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