Let's lighten the burden of prescription drug costs
Date Posted: August 6 1999
By David Bonior (D)
U.S. House
Minority Whip
For many seniors, the proper medications taken at home can spell the difference between maintaining an active and independent life style, or
being home-bound or hospitalized.
But prescriptions are becoming harder and harder to fill for millions of American seniors who are living on fixed incomes. Prescription drug prices have skyrocketed as much as 20 percent over the past two years. For the typical senior who uses several prescriptions to fight off such diseases as arthritis, hypertension and heart disease, the long-term cost of pharmacy visits can be devastating.
This burden is worsened by the fact that Medicare does not cover the cost of most prescription drugs. The original Medicare plan, passed in 1965, was written at a time when patients' lives were more often saved by scalpels than by pharmaceuticals. Many of the drugs we now routinely use to treat heart disease, cancer and arthritis did not even exist in 1965.
It is time to modernize Medicare to keep up with today's treatments.
For these reasons, I am fighting to include a prescription drug benefit as part of our efforts to strengthen Medicare. I believe that when a doctor prescribes crucial medication, Medicare recipients should be able to follow their doctors'
orders.
Making prescription drugs more affordable will help seniors from all walks of life. Nearly half of the 15 million seniors in our country that
don't have any prescription drug coverage are middle-class Americans. This is not the way to honor people after a lifetime of work and good
citizenship. No American should be forced to choose between buying food and buying medicine, and yet we know this happens. We can do better. Now is the time for our nation to strengthen and improve Medicare.
The President has proposed a plan in which seniors can choose for themselves an optional Medicare prescription drug benefit. Under the plan,
beginning in 2002, beneficiaries will be able to choose a prescription drug benefit for a monthly premium. Medicare will then pay half of a recipient's prescription drug costs up to $2,000. By the year 2008, the prescription drug benefit will be increased to $5,000. Because there is no deductible, beneficiaries would be covered starting with their very first prescription.
Older and disabled Americans will also benefit from the volume discounts that Medicare will be able to secure by buying in bulk.
Prescription drugs will be available to seniors at rates that they would never have been able to negotiate on their own. And seniors would still
have access to these discounted prices even after they have exceeded their benefit limit.
By responsibly using our budget surplus, we can make Medicare solvent and include this prudent prescription drug benefit. We can
help ensure that our seniors are able to enjoy their later years confident that good health is not priced out of reach.
I believe that this proposal is a good start, but I also hope that we can do more. There are seniors who are struck by costly catastrophic
diseases and who could easily exceed the $5,000 cap. I am committed to providing relief to these seniors who are most in need as they try and fight critical illnesses.
Above all, we need to ensure that those companies which are providing their employees with solid prescription drug coverage have
incentives to continue. We must make sure that in the area of expanding prescription drug coverage, our nation moves forward - not back. We need to fix what is broken, but protect what is right.
By controlling conditions and diseases early and not waiting for them to become catastrophic, we can plan a better future for our parents and
grandparents. By making prescription drugs affordable, health care will be less costly, more effective and less worrisome for seniors and will provide our families with a greater peace of mind. We can commit to secure and modernized Medicare that offers prescription prices that are reasonable and fair. It is the least we can do.
U.S. House
Minority Whip
For many seniors, the proper medications taken at home can spell the difference between maintaining an active and independent life style, or
being home-bound or hospitalized.
But prescriptions are becoming harder and harder to fill for millions of American seniors who are living on fixed incomes. Prescription drug prices have skyrocketed as much as 20 percent over the past two years. For the typical senior who uses several prescriptions to fight off such diseases as arthritis, hypertension and heart disease, the long-term cost of pharmacy visits can be devastating.
This burden is worsened by the fact that Medicare does not cover the cost of most prescription drugs. The original Medicare plan, passed in 1965, was written at a time when patients' lives were more often saved by scalpels than by pharmaceuticals. Many of the drugs we now routinely use to treat heart disease, cancer and arthritis did not even exist in 1965.
It is time to modernize Medicare to keep up with today's treatments.
For these reasons, I am fighting to include a prescription drug benefit as part of our efforts to strengthen Medicare. I believe that when a doctor prescribes crucial medication, Medicare recipients should be able to follow their doctors'
orders.
Making prescription drugs more affordable will help seniors from all walks of life. Nearly half of the 15 million seniors in our country that
don't have any prescription drug coverage are middle-class Americans. This is not the way to honor people after a lifetime of work and good
citizenship. No American should be forced to choose between buying food and buying medicine, and yet we know this happens. We can do better. Now is the time for our nation to strengthen and improve Medicare.
The President has proposed a plan in which seniors can choose for themselves an optional Medicare prescription drug benefit. Under the plan,
beginning in 2002, beneficiaries will be able to choose a prescription drug benefit for a monthly premium. Medicare will then pay half of a recipient's prescription drug costs up to $2,000. By the year 2008, the prescription drug benefit will be increased to $5,000. Because there is no deductible, beneficiaries would be covered starting with their very first prescription.
Older and disabled Americans will also benefit from the volume discounts that Medicare will be able to secure by buying in bulk.
Prescription drugs will be available to seniors at rates that they would never have been able to negotiate on their own. And seniors would still
have access to these discounted prices even after they have exceeded their benefit limit.
By responsibly using our budget surplus, we can make Medicare solvent and include this prudent prescription drug benefit. We can
help ensure that our seniors are able to enjoy their later years confident that good health is not priced out of reach.
I believe that this proposal is a good start, but I also hope that we can do more. There are seniors who are struck by costly catastrophic
diseases and who could easily exceed the $5,000 cap. I am committed to providing relief to these seniors who are most in need as they try and fight critical illnesses.
Above all, we need to ensure that those companies which are providing their employees with solid prescription drug coverage have
incentives to continue. We must make sure that in the area of expanding prescription drug coverage, our nation moves forward - not back. We need to fix what is broken, but protect what is right.
By controlling conditions and diseases early and not waiting for them to become catastrophic, we can plan a better future for our parents and
grandparents. By making prescription drugs affordable, health care will be less costly, more effective and less worrisome for seniors and will provide our families with a greater peace of mind. We can commit to secure and modernized Medicare that offers prescription prices that are reasonable and fair. It is the least we can do.