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[Page: H3301]  GPO's PDF
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   The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of January 23, 2002, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.

   Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about the need for a Medicare prescription drug benefit and particularly point out the failures of the Republican leadership in this House as well as the President in that they are not addressing this issue. They are not bringing up the prescription drug benefit. I was interested in hearing what the previous speaker, my colleague, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns), said about how the Republicans wanted every American or every senior to have the same kind of package that Congressmen have.

   Well, I have no evidence of that. So far the Republican leadership has talked about bringing up a prescription drug bill for about 2 months in a steady drumbeat that is going to happen this week, it is going to happen next week, it is going to happen next month; and we have no bill. And the suggestions we have seen about what kind of bill they are going to come out with is basically privatizing Medicare so that there is no guaranteed benefit at all. So when my colleague suggests that somehow seniors under the Republican bill are going to get the same kind of benefit that Congressmen have, there is no indication of that whatsoever from the Republican leadership. I have not seen anything to suggest that.

   Let me say now, once again, I think many of my colleagues know that just before the Memorial Day recess we were told by the Republican leadership in the House that they were going to bring up a prescription drug bill for seniors. It was going to go to committee 2 weeks before the Memorial Day recess. It was going to come to the floor the week before the Memorial Day recess. It never happened. They came back after the Memorial Day recess. We had a week already that we were in session and they said we will bring up the bill this week. Then they said we will bring up the bill next week. Yesterday I heard that they were going to bring up the bill or announce the bill this coming Thursday. No bill yet. I have not seen it. There has been no notice in any of our committees of jurisdiction, the Committee on Energy and Commerce or the Committee on Ways and Means, that we will see this prescription drug bill.

[Time: 12:45]

   So I am calling upon the Republican leadership, let us address this issue. Seniors are hurting. They cannot afford to pay for prescription drugs. A lot of them go without. Bring up the bill. Let us have the debate. Let us see whether or not the statements that my colleague from Florida made have any basis.

   Everything that I have seen so far about the Republicans and what they are proposing is what I call a ``privatization'' of Medicare . They are saying that they want to bring up legislation that would take some money, almost like a voucher, and throw it to private insurance companies in the hope that they will provide drug -only policies to senior citizens who might be able to purchase such a policy and will get some help with it.

   We know that privatization, trying to get insurance companies to offer these kinds of drug -only policies, does not work. The insurance executives, their trade group, have told Congress and the committees that they will not work; they do not want to sell that kind of insurance. It is unbelievable why they are just not willing to do what the Democrats have proposed and what most Americans want, which is to expand Medicare , a very good program that we have, yes, a government program, that provides for seniors' hospital care, that provides for seniors' doctors' bills, but does not provide for prescription drug , simply expand Medicare , very similar to what we do with part B, the coverage of doctor bills, and allow people to pay a very low premium per month. They get a good percentage of their prescription drug bills paid for, and it is a guarantee under Medicare , a very good existing program that works for senior citizens.

   I do not know why the Republicans refuse to deal with this as an expansion of Medicare and instead talk about privatizing and giving some money to insurance companies in the hope that somehow seniors will be covered. That is not what the gentleman from Florida suggested, but that is what we are hearing from the Republican leadership.

   The problem with Republicans proposal or what they are talking about is it does not address cost, does not address price. The problem right now, not just for seniors but for all Americans, is the cost of prescription drugs continues to escalate, double digit inflation for over the last 6 years. What we need to control in some way are these prices, and what the Democrats have said is let us have something like part B Medicare , like we have for our doctor bills where a person pays a very low premium per month, they have a very low deductible. I think it is a $100 deductible for the course of the year; 80 percent of the cost of their prescription drugs are covered by the Federal Government.

   Most important, we put a cost mechanism in place that we say under the Democrats' proposal that the Secretary of Health and Human Services is mandated to negotiate and bring prices down because now he is going to represent 30 or 40 million seniors, and he will be able to negotiate better prices.

[Page: H3302]  GPO's PDF

   The Republicans do not talk about that. Not only does the Republican leadership want to privatize and just give money to insurance companies, but they do not suggest in any way that they are going to try to bring down the cost. Why in the world would private insurance companies just not try to pass on all the costs and all the money that the prescription drug companies make and simply pass it on to seniors? We have to have some pricing mechanism, and that is what we are demanding.

   The Republicans need to bring up the bill. Bring up a bill that is comprehensive coverage under Medicare and that has some kind of pricing mechanism.

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