[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17127-17128]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, earlier this year President Bush 
addressed a Michigan audience laying out his plans to restructure 
Medicare. He said, ``If it's good enough for Members of Congress, it's 
good enough for seniors in this Nation.'' What he meant was that 
American seniors who enroll in Medicare should have health insurance 
choices like those available to Members of Congress under the health 
insurance plan called the Federal employees health benefits plan. 
President Bush was not the only one to say so. Republican leaders in 
the House made the same point. All of us have heard colleagues here say 
that. That message, that seniors should have the same kind of health 
insurance choices available to Members of Congress, was an important 
selling point for the Republican Medicare prescription drug bill.
  That message is absolutely right. The problem is that the Republican 
bill is absolutely the opposite. The Republican Medicare bill, H.R. 1, 
does not even come close to giving seniors the kind of coverage that 
Members of Congress have provided for themselves. The Congressional 
Research Service says the FEHBP plan which Members of Congress are in 
offers a drug benefit worth $2,700, but the same CRS, Congressional 
Research Service, nonpartisan arm of the Congress said the Republican 
Medicare bill is worth only about half of that. The Republican Medicare 
bill does not offer American seniors health care choices just like 
Members of Congress even though the President said it did. It does not 
even come close.
  Even a basic comparison shows how the Republican bill comes up 
woefully short. The Republican bill tells seniors they have to pay a 
$250 deductible. Members of Congress do not pay a deductible. The 
Republican bill requires seniors with drug costs over $2,000 to 
continue paying monthly premiums even though they do not get any 
coverage until they spend an additional $2,900 out of pocket. Members 
of Congress do not make premium payments and get nothing in return. The 
Republican Medicare bill does not offer American seniors health care 
choices just like Members of Congress. It does not even come close.
  The Washington Post said the drug benefit proposed by the Republicans 
for seniors provides merely a fraction of the drug coverage that 
Members of Congress receive. The chairman of the health policy 
department at Emory University said that drug benefits are much better 
in the congressional Federal employees plan. Still do not believe the 
Republican bill offers a bad deal for American seniors? You have to 
look no farther than H.R. 2631 on today's suspension calendar. H.R. 
2631 says that private insurance plans under the Federal employees 
health benefit plan must agree to provide drug coverage for Federal 
retirees actuarially equivalent to the drug coverage they provide to 
current Federal employees. In other words, what that means is that when 
Members of Congress and other Federal employees retire, they will not 
be forced to go into H.R. 1, into the Republican Medicare bill. It is 
good for Members of Congress, it is good for Federal employees, because 
the Republican Medicare drug benefit would be a step down for them. 
Remember what the President said: If it is good enough for Members of 
Congress, it is good enough for seniors in this Nation. That is what he 
says about the Republican bill.
  It would be a big step down to go into the Republican privatized drug 
benefit plan for the 13 million American private sector retirees who 
get drug coverage through their employers' health insurance. The 
Congressional Budget Office said that more than one-third of all 
seniors who are in private retirement plans will see their plans 
dropped by their employer. They will be forced out of the private 
coverage they have today, forced out of that plan and put into the 
inferior Republican Medicare prescription drug plan.
  H.R. 2631 says Members of Congress should not have to live under the 
same system that the Republican Medicare plan foists on the American 
public. Should we pass H.R. 2631 today? Absolutely, because 8.5 million 
Federal employees should not have to live with the Republican Medicare 
bill's drug benefit. But given that the Republican Medicare bill's drug 
benefit is so bad that Congress, after passing it 2 weeks

[[Page 17128]]

ago, today is exempting themselves, get that again, the Republican 
Medicare bill is so bad from 2 weeks ago that passed here that today 
Congress is exempting itself from that plan so that Members of Congress 
can continue to enjoy good health coverage, not the inferior plan that 
President Bush and Republicans are foisting on Congress.
  We should pass H.R. 2631 today and we should throw H.R. 1 in the 
shredder and get to work on a real prescription drug benefit for 
American seniors. And the President when he says, ``If it's good enough 
for Congress, it's good enough for seniors in this Nation,'' the 
President should mean what he says.

                          ____________________