[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 115-116]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT IMPLEMENTATION

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, on January 1, 2006, the administration

[[Page 116]]

launched the Medicare prescription drug benefit, a program long touted 
by President Bush as the vehicle that would provide affordable, easily 
accessed prescription drugs for seniors. The program has fallen far 
short of that goal so far. The outcries that I have heard from 
pharmacists, beneficiaries, and health care providers over the past few 
weeks make clear that the implementation of the program has been a 
disaster. This program has not provided either affordable or easily 
accessed drugs to many Medicare beneficiaries. Instead, it has 
presented many seniors and the disabled with frustration, confusion, 
expensive medications, and sometimes no medications at all. It is 
unacceptable for individuals to go without lifesaving medications, yet 
this is what has been happening across the country since this program 
commenced. This situation is an emergency, and Congress needs to 
address it right away.
  Since the beginning of January, I have received panicked phone calls 
from people in my State saying that they were unable to receive drugs 
that they have been routinely getting at their pharmacy every other 
month. Many calls were from people who could not receive essential 
drugs such as insulin, antipsychotics, or immunosuppressants for 
transplant patients. At the same time as I was hearing from people 
suffering from pain because they did not receive their pain 
medications, I received press releases from the Centers for Medicare 
and Medicaid that expressed satisfaction with the launch of the program 
and boasted of the millions of participants in the program. There may 
be millions participating in the program, but too many of them cannot 
receive their drugs, and too many pharmacists are unable to comply with 
the complicated regulations in the program. CMS should be focusing its 
efforts on addressing this emergency rather than disseminating public 
relations messages.
  All anyone needs to do is visit their local pharmacy in order to see 
the problems with the benefit firsthand. There, they are likely to see 
harried pharmacists on the phone with Medicare or private drug plans. 
Chances are high that they are on hold. There are often long waiting 
lines of people in need of medications, sometimes in desperate need, 
and there are customers being charged incorrectly for their 
prescriptions. Sometimes they are charged so much that they cannot 
afford it because the costs exceed what they have in the bank or what 
their credit limits will allow. Tragically, many of the most vulnerable 
beneficiaries have been forced to walk out of the pharmacies without 
their drugs.
  It is clear that, in many respects, the plan and the contingency 
plans for implementation have failed. For instance, the drug plan 
automatically enrolled millions of individuals eligible for both 
Medicare and Medicaid into drug plans, and although these individuals 
were supposed to be notified of this, many were not. Imagine the 
surprise when these people visited the pharmacy this month thinking 
that they would receive their medications for the same price they paid 
in December. Some of these dually eligible individuals were victims of 
data glitches that resulted in the pharmacists being unable to verify 
enrollment in any insurance, and they were told to pay for the full 
costs of their drugs. Some were charged the wrong amount even though 
their insurance was verified. These bills reached into the thousands of 
dollars at times. I was disheartened to learn that some of the 
beneficiaries paid for the drugs on their credit cards, their only 
other option being to go without their medications. Those with little 
income will be paying for these drugs for months, with interest, and 
this is a sad burden for the Federal Government to place on the 
neediest in society.
  While my office did its utmost to help those who called, I wonder how 
many Wisconsinites did not call my office, did not have relatives to 
help them, or were unable to get through to the help lines that had 
waiting times of up to 5 days. How many people are being forced into 
emergency rooms in order to get their medications? How many people are 
being injured because of lack of medications? Have any deaths occurred 
as a result of the extraordinary bureaucratic hurdles in this program? 
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services needs to find answers to 
these questions and address this crisis immediately.
  Fortunately, many State governments, including Wisconsin's, came to 
the aid of the public when the Federal Government would not by enacting 
emergency provisions. Now, these States are depending on the Federal 
Government to return the favor and reimburse them for funds that were 
spent out of tight State budgets. To date, the administration has 
refused to compensate States. I will work to try to make sure that 
Congress quickly addresses this problem, passes legislation, and 
reimburses the States.
  The health of our Nation's citizens is not a partisan issue, and we 
all must join together to assist the most needy. I voted against this 
program in 2003 and have since made numerous attempts to try to improve 
the program. Since mid-December, I have sent three letters to the 
administration, urging that the most pressing problems with the 
Medicare drug benefit be addressed. While these efforts were not 
supported by Republicans, I want to make new efforts that I hope the 
other side of the aisle will support. We cannot sustain a great nation 
if we do not care for the elderly, the sick, the disabled, and the 
homebound. These are the populations that this drug plan is supposed to 
be serving, and I fear that they have been dismally let down the past 
few weeks. Let us not wait any longer. Congress is in session, we are 
in a position to come to their aid, and I hope that we will do the 
right thing and quickly bring relief to the suffering.

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