    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book I)]
    [June 12, 2003]
    [Pages 628-632]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to Senior Citizens in New Britain, Connecticut
    June 12, 2003

        Thanks for the warm welcome. I really want to thank the good folks
    of the New Britain General Hospital for putting up with me and the
    entourage. [Laughter] But thanks for letting me come to talk about some
    important issues facing America.
        I'm on my way to Maine, where I'm going to spend the weekend with
    one of my favorite seniors. [Laughter] He .
    is turning 79 today. I'm not going to tell you how old my mother is, because I want to have a place to sleep.
    [Laughter]
        Thanks for giving me a chance to come down. We face big challenges
    in this country. We've still got a challenge of making sure the Nation
    is secure and the world is more peaceful. Even though we've been
    successful in two major battles in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is still
    an enemy who lurks, who hates America because of what we stand for. And
    we stand for freedom. That's what we believe. We believe in freedom to
    worship, freedom to speak, freedom to succeed. And those freedoms are
    dear to our heart.
        And people don't like the fact that we stand for freedom and promote
    freedom. And therefore, they're out there. But we'll find them, and
    we'll bring them to justice. There's no greater job for an
    administration than to protect the security of the American people. And
    that's precisely what this administration will continue to do.
        And we have got a challenge when it comes to quality health care for
    our seniors. We face a challenge because many seniors

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    face the high cost of prescription drugs. It's a challenge we've got to
    deal with here. Today I'm going to act on how to speed up the approval
    of generic drugs, to make sure that prescriptions are more affordable
    for all Americans, particularly our seniors.
        We also face a challenge because the Medicare system is antiquated.
    Medicine is modernizing, and Medicare isn't. And that's not right for
    our seniors. And so I've come here today to remind Congress that
    Congress has an obligation and a responsibility to meet the needs of our
    seniors and to make sure that Medicare is modern.
        And there's no more strong advocate for making sure Medicare meets
    its promises than Nancy Johnson. She is a
    tireless advocate for quality health care all across America. And I want
    to thank her for her leadership. And I want to thank her for her
    friendship. And I want to thank her for her introduction.
        I was a Governor once, so I got to know the Governors--the Nation's
    Governors. And the State of Connecticut has got a great Governor in John
    Rowland. He's been dealt a pretty tough hand
    this last year, but he's playing it like a pro. And the citizens of this
    State are fortunate to have him here.
        I want to thank the mayors who are here. The best politics, of
    course, is local politics. I want to thank you all for coming. I
    appreciate you taking your time out of your day for coming.
        I met Ruth Campanario when I got off the
    chopper. And you probably say, why would you mention her? Well, there's
    a lot of focus on the great strength of America these days. They talk
    about our military might, and we're plenty tough if we have to be. They
    talk about our muscle, but the true strength of the country is the heart
    of the country because of the compassion of the citizens who live here.
        And Ruth is a volunteer; she volunteers
    at the Friendship Service Center. It's a local shelter that offers
    emergency and transitional housing and job training and counseling
    services. She takes time out of her life to try to make somebody else's
    life better. That's the strength of America. It's the willingness of
    people to serve something greater than yourself, to love a neighbor just
    like you'd like to be loved yourself.
        So Ruth, I want to thank you and thank
    all who volunteer to make their communities a better place. And thank
    you for coming. Where are you, Ruth? Oh, there you are. Stand up, Ruth.
    Thank you. Thank you very much.
        Our health care system is the best in the world, and we need to keep
    it that way. We're great because we've got great docs. We're great
    because we've got unbelievable research; new technologies literally save
    lives on a daily basis. I mean, we're really good at health care. But
    we've got problems we've got to deal with.
        And one of the problems is the cost of prescription drugs. We live
    in an age of miracle drugs. Millions of our citizens have found healing
    and hope from medicines that were discovered and created in this
    country, and it's--but the treatment, the use of drugs, has replaced
    major surgeries as well. Treatment is changing. And this has been a
    blessing. It's been a blessing for a lot of seniors who are living
    longer and better lives. But the challenge for America is to make sure
    that lifesaving drugs are both affordable and available to America's
    seniors.
        Now, one way to make prescriptions more affordable is to ensure that
    generic drugs are not delayed in reaching the market, are not delayed
    for consumers to be able to purchase. In our system, when a drug company
    develops a new medicine, the company is given a patent. And patents
    ensure that investment and innovation are rewarded, so we continue to
    get additional lifesaving drugs as new discoveries are made. It makes
    sense to have a system that protects investment for a while.
        Yet when a patent expires, other companies have the right to make a
    safe, lower cost genetic version of the drug. However,

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    the system a lot of time doesn't work because the original inventor of
    the drug uses delaying tactics to avoid competition. They delay the
    process of patent expiration so that consumers don't have additional
    choices of generic drugs.
        At my direction, today the Federal Drug Administration, the FDA, is
    taking action to close loopholes that slow the movement of generic drugs
    to the marketplace. First, we are limiting the amount of time that a
    drug company can delay the marketing of a generic competitor. Instead of
    letting them file one delay after another, the Government will allow a
    single 30-month stay while legal complexities are sorted out. In other
    words, the initial manufacturer of a drug will not be allowed to use the
    legal process for endless delay, which hurts our consumers in America.
    Secondly, we are no longer allowing drug companies to block generics
    because of patents on minor features, such as the color of the pill
    bottle or some combination of ingredients not related to the
    effectiveness of the medicines. Thirdly, we are tightening the overall
    rules on patent applications so that false statements to get a patent
    result in criminal charges.
        By taking these actions, we will bring generic drugs to the market
    much more quickly--in some cases, years earlier. And this should save
    the American consumers about $3.5 billion each year--savings that will
    go, of course, to the consumers, to our seniors, or to Medicaid programs
    administered by the State, or to employer health plans.
        The Senate is looking to write these reforms that we're now
    implementing to executive action in the law. And I support their
    efforts. I want to work with both the House and the Senate on this
    legislation to make certain that prescription drugs are more affordable
    to the American people.
        And then we've got to deal with the issue of accessibility for our
    seniors. People on Medicaid, Medicare need to have a choice of
    affordable plans, all of which provide prescription drug benefits. Every
    Federal employee--including every Member of Congress--gets to choose the
    health coverage that best fits their needs. If it's good enough for the
    employees and the Members of Congress to have choice, it's good enough
    for our seniors to have choice when it comes to health care plans as
    well.
        And so here are the choices available. If a senior wants to stay in
    the current Medicare system, they should have that option. And that
    option should include a prescription drug benefit. If seniors want to
    have enhanced benefits, such as more coverage for preventative care and
    other services, they ought to have that choice as well. And finally,
    seniors who like the affordability of managed care plans should be able
    to enroll in managed care plans. They shouldn't be starved to death so
    seniors don't have that option. And low income seniors should receive
    extra help in meeting whatever plan--the premiums of whatever plan they
    choose so that all seniors will have the ability to choose a Medicare
    option that includes the prescription drug benefit.
        These are the principles on the legislation that Nancy and I are working on. And these are the principles
    that we believe will be incorporated in the bill, so long as you let
    your Senators and others know that you're interested in reform, that you
    want a modern Medicare system.
        Sandra Sorensen--I just met with some of
    your fellow citizens from the area, all of whom are seniors. I listened
    to their stories. Let me share some of the stories with you. Sandra
    Sorensen is here. She is on a Connecticut special program called
    ConnPACE, a program that, Johnny, you
    probably helped design. It helps her on her prescription drugs.
        The problem is, is that she wants to
    move up to be with her daughter in New Hampshire. Her daughter is
    worried about her at times, I guess is the right thing to say, Sandra,
    kind of worried about you. She wants you to make sure that, you know,

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    that you're well taken care of. She wants to be close by. The problem
    is, if she goes to New Hampshire, she loses ConnPACE, which means she
    won't have the medicines necessary to take care of her current ailments.
    We need to reform Medicare to make sure people have got the capacity to
    go from one State to the other without losing prescription drugs.
        The Rowlands are with us today, Ralph and
    Bernice. They were quite outspoken about the
    need to make sure the Medicare system works properly. Ralph was
    wondering out loud, ``How come Medicare doesn't try to prevent disease
    before it happens?'' That seems to make sense. [Laughter] It doesn't.
    They pay now about $200 a month, and what they're worried about is
    increasing drug costs will make it very difficult for them to live out
    their older years.
        The Humphreys are with us as well. Ginny spent her time working in the
    Connecticut health care system. She knows a lot about health care. She
    claims she had a stroke; it's certainly hard to tell it. She's very
    articulate. But she understands--and she likes Medicare+Choice, but she
    sees that Medicare+Choice is slowly getting starved in the budgets of
    the Federal Government. The plan also doesn't have a drug coverage. They
    spend about $1,000 each month on a variety of medicines. They need a
    modern Medicare system so they can live out the rest of their years in
    comfort.
        Lois Splain is here with us. She likes
    Medicare. She likes being able to choose her doctor without a referral.
    But she needs coverage for prescription drugs. Hilda Gandara is here from--Cuban American is with us. And she is--
    lives in West Hartford. Unfortunately, she lost her husband recently.
    She's on her own, like a lot of seniors are. Her costs are--drug costs
    are about $700 a year. She's worried about whether or not she can afford
    prescription drugs.
        There's story after story after story all across America about
    people wondering whether or not they can afford lifesaving drugs in
    their later years. And the Congress must act. That's what the Congress
    must do. The Congress must understand we've got a problem with Medicare.
    They should not politicize the issue. They ought to focus on what's best
    for our fellow Americans and get a package done. And the House needs to
    get it done, and the Senate needs to get it done prior to the Fourth of
    July break.
        One of the important parts of a good health care system is the
    relationship between patient and doctor. And any good health care policy
    must recognize that relationship. But we've got a problem in America
    that is affecting the relationship between patient and doctor, and that
    is we got a medical liability system that is out of control. If we want
    affordable health care and available health care, we got to make sure
    that junk lawsuits don't run docs out of business and run the cost of
    medicine up so high that people can't afford medicine.
        And it's an issue--it's a real issue all across America. And if
    people in America don't think their bills are being affected by these
    frivolous lawsuits, then they don't really understand the system, in my
    judgment. The cost drivers are high. Not only are docs having to pay
    higher and higher premiums--I suspect we'd find some pretty good
    testimony right here. I heard it yesterday from a baby doc in Chicago
    whose premiums, annual premiums are $170,000 a year. He anticipates
    they'll go up 40 percent next year, and he's never been sued.
        The other cost driver is preventative medicine. If there's a--if
    people are filing lawsuits right and left in our society, which they
    are, it's natural that a doctor or a hospital will want to practice more
    medicine than is necessary to be able to defend themselves in case they
    end up in a court of law. And that's expensive.

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        This is a Federal issue, in my judgment, because of the costs of
    litigation--how it affects the Federal budget. It affects the cost of
    Medicare. Lawsuits affect the cost of Medicaid. It affects the cost of
    veterans' health care. It is a national issue that requires a national
    solution. And that national solution says people ought to have their day
    in court. But junk lawsuits make it harder for somebody who's actually
    been hurt to have their day in court. It also recognizes bad doctors
    need to be punished, something good doctors fully subscribe to. It
    recognizes that people ought to be able to recover their economic
    damages, but there needs to be a hard cap of $250,000 on non-economic
    damages. And we need to make sure that we have a reasonable cap on
    punitive damages.
        This is a necessary part of health care reform. It is necessary to
    keep docs in business. It is necessary to keep consumers in a position
    where they can have affordable and available health care. The House has
    passed the bill. The Senate needs to pass the bill. And if you're
    interested in medical liability reform, you ought to contact the United
    States Senators from the State in which you live and let them know your
    opinion.
        I believe we can get things done in Washington, DC, if we remember
    whose time we're on. We're on the people's time in the Nation's Capital.
    We spend--we're there to get the job done. By working together, we can
    make sure this country is more secure and, I believe, the world more
    peaceful. And by working together, we can make sure that our folks have
    got economic security and, as importantly, health security.
        I want to thank you for giving me the chance to come today to talk
    about an exciting opportunity for those of us who are honored to serve
    the American people--the opportunity to bring Medicare into the 21st
    century, so we can look our seniors in the eye and say we were called to
    solve a problem, and by working together, we were able to solve that
    problem, not only for this generation but for future generations to
    come.
        Thanks for your time. May God bless you. May God continue to bless
    America.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:03 p.m. in the cafeteria at New Britain
    General Hospital. In his remarks, he referred to Representative Nancy L.
    Johnson of Connecticut.