[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17419-17420]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    PRESCRIPTION DRUGS AND MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Loretta Sanchez) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I come tonight to

[[Page 17420]]

talk about prescription drugs and Medicare. The bill the House passed 
just 2 weeks ago is simply the first step toward the Republicans goal 
to privatize Medicare.

                              {time}  2015

  They want to do this for a few reasons, but their most important 
reason for doing this is that, I think, they firmly believe, or I would 
even say blindly believe, that the private sector and the free market 
solution is always better than a government one.
  The free market is an incredible tool, and it has advanced many areas 
of human endeavor, but for it to work, it must have one important 
component, and that is the bottom line, or profit. Without that 
critical component, the free market system is useless.
  Medicare was created in 1965 precisely to address the failure of the 
markets. It was not profitable to treat our seniors with a free market 
health insurance solution. The market solution to insuring the elderly 
was simply not to insure them, because, after all, they get sick too 
often, and insurance companies would have to pay. If you want to make 
money in the medical insurance game, you insure young, healthy people, 
not old people.
  Luckily for America's seniors, the Democrats controlled Congress, and 
we set up Medicare. We valued our elders. And even though the markets 
wanted to leave them behind, we did not. We protected them, and we 
treated them with the compassion and the dignity they deserved in their 
old age.
  So why do the Republicans want to privatize Medicare so badly? Do 
they not remember what happened before Medicare, when we left the 
health of our aging parents and grandparents to the free markets? Are 
they so swept up in their blind faith in the market that they believe 
somehow it will just take care of things, even though we already have 
tried that and we know that it does not work?
  Taking care of the elderly is not profitable, nor should it be. 
Profit is not always the most important thing. These are the people who 
reared us. They are the people who took care of us when we got sick. 
They are the people that taught us right from wrong. The Republican 
proposal is a slap in the face to our parents and to our grandparents.
  Every provision of the Republican bill is designed to be a handout to 
insurance and prescription drug companies, not to give our seniors a 
better health care plan. The prescription drug plan laid out is 
available only through private insurance companies and HMOs. There is 
no provision, no provision to hold down the prices drug companies can 
charge. It does not ensure that all seniors will be eligible for this 
coverage, which has been a hallmark of the Medicare program.
  And if that was not bad enough, their proposal would increase 
seniors' costs for doctors' visits by raising the Part B premium and 
indexing it to inflation. This provision is included for only one 
reason, one reason, and that is to move people out of traditional 
Medicare and to force seniors into managed care plans, into HMOs.
  Now, I tried to offer a substitute amendment to this bill that would 
have provided a real prescription drug benefit for Medicare 
beneficiaries, but it was ruled out of order by the Committee on Rules, 
out of order because they did not like it, at 4:00 in the morning, in 
the dark of night, only hours before we voted on the bill.
  My amendment would have provided one simple type of coverage, 
catastrophic coverage against excessively high drug costs for seniors. 
There were no premiums. There were no copays. There was no coverage 
gap. The crux of the plan defined the out-of-pocket spending limit to 6 
percent of the adjusted gross income of the beneficiary, with any 
additional costs being picked up by Medicare.
  My plan provided annual spending targets, which would be guaranteed 
not to exceed the $400 billion level that President Bush had set. It 
also called upon the Secretary to encourage the use of prescription 
drugs and contractual arrangements with pharmacy benefit managers to 
help control prescription drug costs.
  This idea of bringing down the cost of a drug is in sharp contrast to 
the outrageous, noninterference clause found in the bill that passed 
this body 2 weeks ago, designed to ensure that drug companies can 
charge whatever excess price they want for the drugs they choose.
  It is clear to me and to my Democratic colleagues, and it will become 
clear to America's seniors and their families, where the Republicans' 
loyalties lie. The story has been the same since the start of the 108th 
Congress. From homeland security to education, from veterans' benefits 
to the child tax credit, and now, finally, to health and to the well-
being of our parents and grandparents, the Republican message is clear: 
If you are not a powerful corporation, if you do not give money to 
Republicans, they do not care about you.

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