[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14144]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            MEDICARE LOTTERY

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, yesterday it was reported that the 
pharmaceutical industries and HMO industries spent $141 million with 
the prescription drug bill. With the Medicare bill, taxpayers will give 
HMOs an additional $46 billion and they will give the pharmaceutical 
industry an additional $139 billion.
  Where else in America can you invest $141 million and get a $185 
billion return on your money? The GOP Congress, but of course.
  By overpaying private insurance companies, denying the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services the ability to negotiate for lower prices and 
blocking the free market from working and allowing Americans to get 
safe, affordable drugs from Canada and Europe, the Medicare bill is 
everything the HMOs and pharmaceutical companies paid for and 
requested.
  We are doing everything we can in this bill except the things that 
will actually lower prescription drug prices.
  Yesterday the Bush administration announced that they will provide 
drug coverage to patients with some serious diseases, less than 10 
percent of them though. They will decide which seriously ill 
individuals will get their Medicare coverage now by the lottery. There 
are 600,000 people eligible for medical coverage, but we are denying 
this coverage to 90 percent of them, cancer patients, people with 
multiple sclerosis, and arthritis. We can do better in lowering the 
prices of drugs than by lottery.

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