[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4443]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT

  (Mr. PORTMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, there are still some asking why Congress 
added a prescription drug benefit for seniors under Medicare. The 
reason is simple. Before we passed this law, the Medicare program 
operated like it was still back in 1965, when surgeries and hospital 
stays, rather than prescription drugs, were the primary means of 
treating and managing disease. Today, prescription medications not only 
treat illness, they can prevent them.
  Prior to the changes in law, Medicare would pay an average of $5,000 
for a person's hospitalization for heart failure, for instance, but not 
pay the $67 per month for Lipitor which is a cholesterol-lowering drug 
which can prevent heart failure. This is bad medicine and that is why 
we needed to add a prescription drug benefit.
  Mr. Speaker, adding a benefit to Medicare was an important first step 
for providing seniors with quality and affordable health care. The 
benefit is entirely voluntary. The senior who does not want to take the 
benefit, they do not have to.
  The prescription drug benefit is simple. It provides seniors relief 
from the high cost of prescription drugs, and it focuses that relief on 
those who need it most. Those who have low income, 12 million seniors 
get the benefit for the low-income seniors and those with high drug 
costs who can benefit from the new catastrophic insurance benefit.
  Mr. Speaker, the new Medicare law provides seniors a choice and 
control with their drug plans, and it is good for our seniors.

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