[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 17 (Monday, May 1, 2000)]
[Pages 923-925]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to Departure for Whiteville, North Carolina

April 26, 2000

Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage

    The President Thank you very much. Thank you. I am on my way to 
North Carolina for another leg of our new markets tour

[[Page 924]]

to close the digital divide. But before I leave I want to say a few 
words about an important study that Senator Daschle, Congressman 
Gephardt, and I have just been briefed on regarding the growing cost of 
prescription drugs and the burden these costs are placing on seniors and 
on disabled Americans.
    The study is from Families USA. It is a careful and compelling piece 
of work. And I thank Families USA President Ron Pollack for providing it 
and for being here with us today.
    For over a year now I have been arguing that we as a nation ought to 
use this historic moment of strength and prosperity to meet our long-
term challenges, especially the challenge of helping all our seniors 
afford prescription drugs that can lengthen and enrich their lives. More 
than three in five American seniors today lack affordable and dependable 
prescription drug coverage. Today's report shows that the burden on 
these seniors is getting worse.
    According to the report, the price of the prescription drugs most 
often used by seniors has risen at double the rate of inflation for 6 
years now, including this past year. The burden of these rapidly rising 
prices falls hardest on seniors who lack drug coverage because they 
don't receive the benefits of price discounts that most insurers 
negotiate. Indeed, the gap between drug prices for people with insurance 
versus those without insurance nearly doubled from 8 to 15 percent 
between 1996 and 1999. Seniors living on fixed incomes simply can't cope 
with these kinds of price increases forever. That's why we should take 
action to help them, and do it now.
    In my budget, I propose a comprehensive plan to provide a 
prescription drug benefit that is optional, affordable, and accessible 
for all, a plan based on price competition, not price controls; a plan 
that will boost seniors' bargaining power to get the best prices 
possible; a plan that is part of an overall effort to strengthen and 
modernize Medicare so we will never have to ask our children to shoulder 
our burden when the baby boom generation retires.
    I'm gratified to see growing bipartisan support for adding a 
prescription drug benefit to Medicare. But earlier this month leaders in 
the House put forth the outlines of a plan that has as a stated goal: 
providing access to affordable coverage for all seniors. It's good if we 
agree on the goal. Unfortunately, the plan they propose won't achieve 
the goal. Instead it would subsidize insurance companies to offer 
prescription-drug-only policies for middle income seniors, for policies 
the insurance industry itself has already said it will not offer. And 
because the plan would provide direct premium support only to low income 
seniors and disabled Americans, it would do nothing for those seniors 
with modest middle class incomes between $15,000 and $50,000. Nearly 
half of all the Medicare beneficiaries who lack prescription drug 
coverage fall into this category. For them, rising drug prices are 
eating away at financial independence.
    For example, according to this new report, a widow taking medication 
for diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol, who lives on $16,700 a 
year, must spend about $2,000 a year, or 14 percent of income, on these 
drugs. That's not unusual. And for a nation that cares about seniors, 
it's not acceptable. A person like that should be covered in our 
initiative.
    The majority's plan also is a phantom as long as the leadership 
insists on moving forward with a budget resolution that would spend 
every dime of the surplus, and then some, over the next 10 years on tax 
cuts. If the responsible and unrealized, realistic spending cuts this 
budget calls for don't materialize, the tax cut will make it impossible 
to pay down the debt. It would leave nothing left for a prescription 
drug benefit. Any prescription drug plan that is not adequately financed 
is not available, in fact, is not affordable to all, and therefore, is 
not a real plan at all.
    The balanced budget I have proposed would provide a voluntary 
benefit for all seniors, with plenty left over to pay down the debt, 
lengthen the life of Social Security and Medicare, and increase 
investments in education, as well as finance a responsible tax cut. It 
provides a prescription drug benefit that all seniors can afford in a 
way America can afford.
    I'm encouraged by the progress we've made on this issue. Now both 
parties have

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come to support the idea of adding voluntary prescription drug benefits 
to Medicare. Both parties have agreed to the principle that the benefits 
should be available and affordable to all Americans. There's no reason 
we can't come to an agreement on the details of how to provide it. 
Fundamentally, again, as with so many of the things we deal with here in 
Washington, this should not be a Republican or a Democratic partisan 
issue. It should be an American issue.
    I want to thank Senator Daschle and Representative Gephardt for 
their support and their leadership on this issue, and I'd like to ask 
them now to say a few words, beginning with our leader in the House, Mr. 
Gephardt.

[At this point, Representative Richard A. Gephardt and Senator Thomas A. 
Daschle made brief remarks.]

    The President. Thank you very much. Before I close I would just like 
to ask all of you to join me in expressing our appreciation to Ron 
Pollack and Families USA. They've been there on these issues year in and 
year out. I don't think they get as much acknowledgement as they 
deserve. But this is further evidence that the proposal we have is right 
for America from a source that everybody can trust.
    Thank you, Ron.

Note: The President spoke at 9:55 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. The transcript released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary also included the remarks of Representative Gephardt and 
Senator Daschle.