[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 19639-19640]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   SENIOR CITIZENS DEMAND AFFORDABLE DRUG COVERAGE ON DONUT HOLE DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 25, 2006

  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in recognition of last Friday, 
September 22, ``Donut Hole'' Day. Donut Hole Day was not a happy day 
but a marker to remind policymakers about the problems that the Part D 
plan is imposing on America's seniors and people with disabilities this 
year.
  September 22 was the day when the average person with Medicare fell 
into the Part D donut hole--a black hole of coverage for those whose 
annual drug costs fall between $2,250 and $5,100. The donut hole is a 
$2,850 gap in coverage when people with private Part D plans continue 
to pay insurance premiums even though they receive no coverage. 
September 22 was also the day that senior citizens and persons with 
disabilities came together in events across the country to demand an 
affordable drug benefit in Medicare.
  Nearly 7 million senior citizens and people with disabilities are 
expected to enter the donut hole. A Kaiser Family Foundation study 
estimates that, of the people who will fall into the donut hole, 1.9 
million (28 percent) have incomes less than 150 percent of poverty; 2.9 
million (42 percent) are in fair or poor health; and 3.8 million (55 
percent) are women.
  The donut hole is an unprecedented phenomenon. This type of coverage 
gap is not found in the Federal Employees Health Benefits plan or in 
any other private plan. It is an insurance mechanism especially crafted 
for people with Medicare.
  An analysis from an August report from the Center for Economic and 
Policy Research concludes that if Medicare had been allowed to 
negotiate drug prices in the same way as the Veterans Administration, 
the savings

[[Page 19640]]

would have been more than enough to eliminate the donut hole gap in 
coverage. In fact, the close to $50 billion that could be saved in the 
first full year of the program is more than twice the size of the donut 
hole.
  The real winners in the Part D program are the drug and insurance 
companies. In a report released this week by the Committee on 
Government Reform Democratic staff shows that profits grew by over $8 
billion (27 percent) for the ten largest pharmaceutical manufacturers 
in the first half of this year.
  The losers in the Part D program are people with Medicare. The prices 
charged by the top Part D plans in my Congressional District were 79 
percent higher than the prices negotiated by the Federal government. A 
recent Merrill Lynch analysis found that in 2006 prices for popular 
brand-name drugs had increased by 8.6 percent over the last year, twice 
as fast as the overall information rate.
  The donut hole puts seniors and people disabilities' health at grave 
risk. A New England Journal of Medicine study found that seniors' 
behaviors change when faced with a prescription drug benefit cap after 
which they have to pay the full costs of their drugs--and the donut 
hole is a cap. The study found that found that seniors who confront a 
cap are more likely to skip doses of treatments, less likely to visit 
hospital emergency departments, and, sadly, sometimes more likely to 
die sooner. Their annual mortality rate was 22 percent higher than 
those without such a cap on benefits.
  Representatives Marion Berry of Arkansas, Tom Allen of Maine and I 
introduced H.R. 752, the Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act, 
which would take Medicare in a new direction by siding with senior 
citizens and people with disabilities--not the drug companies. This 
bill would give people with Medicare the choice of enrolling in a 
Medicare-administered drug benefit and we would force drug companies to 
lower their prices by requiring Medicare to negotiate for deep 
discounts. The savings could be used to fill the donut hole.
  Ms. Pauline Metzger-Aronson wrote to me earlier this year to tell me 
that she fell into the donut hole in June. She will pay a monthly 
premium for the rest of the year, although she will not receive any 
benefits because she will not climb out of the donut hole. She told me 
that the saying, ``As you amble through life, whatever be your goal: 
Keep your eye on the donut and not upon the hole'' had new meaning 
because ``some of us seniors have reached the point where the donut is 
gone and we are now forced to look into the hole.'' H.R. 752 would help 
Ms. Metzger-Aronson and many others. It is a step in the right 
direction which will put America's seniors and people with disabilities 
first. I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

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