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Graham USA Today Op-Ed:
'We need it. Let's do it.'
July 19, 2002
The U.S. Senate's debate will lead to one of the most significant
modernizations we can make in health care: providing a prescription-drug benefit
for America's seniors.
Prescription drugs will open the way to the most fundamental reform in
Medicare, converting this 1965 model of sickness to a 21st century model of
wellness care.
As we debate the specifics of a drug benefit for Medicare, there are
three principles that should shape this program:
* Will seniors have a comprehensive benefit? Medicare beneficiaries
deserve coverage that is similar to the drug coverage they had during their
working years -- a guaranteed, defined benefit with a $ 25 monthly premium, no
deductible, $ 10 and $ 40 co-payments on prescriptions, no gaps in coverage and
a maximum of $ 4,000 in drug spending.
And additional assistance for the one-third of seniors who qualify as
low-income must be part of the benefit. This is what the Senate Democratic bill
provides seniors.
* Can seniors rely on how this benefit would be delivered? Our bill would
deliver drugs via a tried and true, tested and reliable delivery system that is
used by private employers and the federal government.
Plans offered by the Republicans would subsidize private insurance
companies with taxpayer dollars, allowing faceless bureaucrats to determine what
benefits, even what prescription drugs seniors need.
* What will it cost to have a drug benefit seniors can use? If we fail to
give the elderly a benefit they can use, then we will have not solved the
problem of seniors' choosing between food and medicine.
Our benefit is estimated to cost $ 425 billion through 2010. If the
program is extended through 2012, it would cost an additional $ 169 billion.
While this seems expensive, it must be put in context. The average
senior's spending for prescription drugs in 1965 was $ 65 a year. In 2002,
overall spending has risen to $ 2,149 -- a 35-fold increase.
The reality is that the cost of prescription drugs is rising, and the
number of seniors who need these drugs will continue to rise, too.
The other reality is that prescription drugs have changed modern life by
improving the quality of people's lives, reducing recovery periods and making
costly surgeries obsolete -- lowering heath-care costs.
To spend any less than we have allocated would be to offer an empty
promise to our nation's seniors. They would face unaffordable premiums and a
benefit that stopped midway through the year. Or they would spend more than they
would ever receive in benefits. This is why every major senior organization in
America, including AARP, is supporting the Graham-Miller-Kennedy bill.
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., is a member of the Senate health-care finance
subcommittee and lead sponsor of the Senate Democrats' prescription-drug plan.
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