Social Security and Health Care

     MEDICARE DRUG PROGRAM -- (House of Representatives - May 03, 2006 )

   (Mr. LIPINSKI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

   Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, in less than 12 days, seniors face a critical deadline. By May 15, they must sign up for a Medicare prescription drug plan. After this date, they will pay a permanent penalty of 1 percent for every month that they wait to join, a penalty they will pay on top of their premium for the rest of their lives.

   I have held more than three dozen seminars across my district to help seniors navigate through the overly complex program, and they keep calling asking for more help. They are understandably confused by the more than 60 different choices that they have. The least we can do is give seniors more time to understand their options so that they can make their best choice.

   To do this, Congress must pass the Medicare Informed Choice Act which would delay the late enrollment penalty, prevent beneficiaries from losing their employer-based coverage and allow seniors to switch plans if they make a mistake. More than 70 percent of seniors are asking for more time. It is long overdue for Congress to listen and make sure that seniors have a prescription drug plan that works for them.

PROBLEMS WITH MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN -- (House of Representatives - March 30, 2006 )

   The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Corrine Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.

   Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida . Mr. Speaker, the countdown to the Bush drug tax, 44 days before May 15. May 15.

   Last week, during the break, I held six town hall meetings throughout my district on the new Medicare Part D prescription drug program. And I would encourage all of my colleagues to do the same. Not only did it give my constituents a chance to get the help that they needed and answered their questions, it gave me an opportunity to really find out how the new program is working or, should I say, not working.

   Unfortunately, I heard a lot of horror stories from a lot of people. Not only is picking a plan extremely complicated, but the arbitrary date of May 15 makes absolutely no sense. I have been an elected official for over 25 years. And this is the first time I have seen people who are going to be penalized for the rest of their lives if they do not sign up by a certain date, May 15.

   Not only having them to set a ridiculous short time to sign up for this complicated plan, but the next time seniors can sign up will be November 15 through December 31, that includes both Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. So it is very complicated for seniors.

   The Republican leadership wrote a bill that prevents the Secretary of Health and Human Services from negotiating the price of the drug, even though both the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of DOT are negotiating these prices right now.

   Can you imagine what would happen if Wal-Mart, if we told Wal-Mart they could not get a reduction price on bulk buying? Every Republican in this House would be on this floor screaming bloody murder. But when it is the needs of our seniors, there is a deaf ear; you do not hear them.

   This bill allows the private plans to take drugs off of their approved lists and even charge more for drugs during that year. They can charge more, while seniors are locked in and cannot change plans until the next year.

   It also turns seniors into criminals. Yes, criminals. What do I mean? If they buy drugs that are cheaper, let us say in Mexico or Canada , they will be criminals.

   And one of the most troubling aspects of this bill and the one that most people talk about is the doughnut. What do you mean doughnut? Well, no coverage is provided after you spend $2,250 until your cost reaches $5,001. That is $3,000 out-of-pocket.

   Lastly, I want to talk about the independent pharmacists. This bill is killing your small town pharmacists who have been in business for years. They still know their customers by name. They are the only pharmacists who are still delivering medicine to seniors who cannot come out of the house or after hours when someone needs an emergency prescription.

   This Congress needs to do the right thing for our parents and grandparents and extend this silly deadline date of May 15, allow the Secretary to negotiate bulk prices, and should make the appropriate changes that will save America's local pharmacies from extinction.

   Again, I encourage my colleagues to hold their meetings and talk to their seniors and pharmacies about the drug plan. And seniors, for God's sake, please look at this: May 15, you need to sign up. But if you have questions, call Medicare counselors at 1-800-Medicare, that is, 1-800-633-4227. That is May 15. That is the drop-dead date. Thank you.

HSA'S WILL CAUSE MORE PROBLEMS THAN THEY SOLVE -- (House of Representatives - March 01, 2006 )

   (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

   Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, for 5 years there was a silence at the White House about the issue of health care and how it is deteriorating in this country. The access has gotten worse and worse and worse under this administration.

   The other night, in the State of the Union , the President, apparently the polling told him there is a problem out there. So he came out here with another one of his Band-Aids: Let's give everybody a health savings account. A more ridiculous proposal could not have been made on the floor to deal with the problems of average Americans.

   To expect average Americans to be able to put aside enough money to pay a $10,000 deductible and then buy a catastrophic plan is simply not from the real world. The average American in this country is fighting day to day, paycheck to paycheck, and our President comes up with another one of his tax giveaways to the rich.

   The only people who benefit from this are wealthy people who can take 10,000 bucks out of their pocket and pay it when it comes due. We ought to stop that and start a debate in this House between the Democrats and Republicans. That is the only way we will get sensible health care coverage for all Americans. They deserve it.

SOCIAL SECURITY -- (House of Representatives - November 17, 2005 )

   (Mr. CARTER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

   Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, this year the President of the United States, George W. Bush, raised the issue and started the great debate on Social Security. The American public learned that our Social Security system is in trouble, and they know that if we do not do something, we are going to be facing a crisis.

   You can debate when that crisis is going to happen, but no one now will doubt that there is a crisis. I believe we can dream a dream for an America in which everyone can have a living amount of money that they can retire on. Right now, if Social Security is all you have got, you are in trouble. It is time for us to continue this debate.

   It is time for us on both sides of the aisle to come to the table and address Social Security and come up with solutions which will increase the amount of available income to our retirees and to our elderly, so that all people in America can live the American Dream, both now and when they reach their golden years. Let us not stop the debate on Social Security. Let us continue to look at this important issue.

MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG PROGRAM AND PLAN FINDER COMPLICATED FOR SENIORS -- (House of Representatives - November 15, 2005 )

   Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take the time of the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) since I am next on the list.

   The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Oregon ?

   There was no objection.

   The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.

   TRIBUTE TO ED ROYBAL

   Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, first, I missed the earlier discussion of Chairman Ed Roybal, but I had the privilege of serving with him for a number of years on the Transportation Committee, and he was a wonderful inspiration to a young Member of Congress. I was much younger then, and I learned a good deal during his leadership and would say that he provided a tremendous leadership and a legacy for Californians and all Americans in terms of his investment in transportation infrastructure for America . So my condolences to the family.

   I rise tonight to discuss the Medicare prescription drug benefit. I went online today to see what seniors would experience. It is fairly extraordinary, mind-boggling, particularly given the fact that a large number of seniors have never experienced the Internet.

   Seventy-six percent of seniors have never been online. I have. It was still not easy. Twenty-six percent of people on Medicare have cognitive impairments. Some of my detractors on the other side of the aisle might say I have that, but I do not. Three million have visual impairments. I wear corrective lenses. And 2.3 million reside in nursing homes.

   These are all extraordinary complications for an unbelievably, unnecessarily complicated program. Why was it constructed this way? For two reasons: the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance industry, not the 40 million seniors and others who are eligible for Medicare in this country. The bill was designed by the Republicans to reward their very, very generous contributors in the pharmaceutical and insurance industry.

   The insurance industry is an industry, of course, which is exempt from antitrust law. It can and does collude to set prices, exclude people and is quite profitable. Then, of course, the pharmaceutical industry is the most consistently profitable industry in the world.

   They are both given subsidies through this legislation. We could have done something much simpler, much less expensive. This plan will cost $1 trillion over 10 years for the American taxpayers in addition to incredible sums for seniors, particularly those who make wrong choices.

   In my little survey, 41 plans came up; and in comparing three, it is going to take me all night if I wanted to compare all 41. I keep going back to the screen that only allows three at a time. My annual costs would vary between $2,457 and $5,243; and, of course, the pharmaceutical companies can change the drug benefit weekly. Seniors can change the plan once a year and you know what will happen if they have large claims during the year and they actually get a benefit? They will be disallowed. They will not be allowed to reenroll in that plan by the private insurance sector next year. There is nothing that requires that they be reenrolled if they are willing to pay the premiums to get the benefits.

   We could have had the government, like we do with the VA, go out and negotiate the lowest price for prescription drugs for the Nation's 40 million Medicare eligible citizens. That would have saved billions of dollars; but the Republicans said, well, that is unfair, that is anticompetitive. Well, no, actually we are forming a buying group. We are using market power to negotiate lower prices. They say, no, we should give subsidies to the pharmaceutical industry and subsidies to the noncompetitive insurance industry. That is their version of a free market. Of course, again, they are generous campaign contributors so we can understand some of this rhetoric on their side of the aisle.

   Nonetheless, an incredibly expensive, confusing plan which gives all of the benefit to the pharmaceutical and insurance industry puts seniors at risk, puts taxpayers at risk, and we could have done so much better for so much less. It would cost nothing to negotiate those lower prices. The VA gets prices at a 70, 75 percent reduction from list price; but, no, the Republicans had a special provision in this bill.

   Medicare, the default provider for anybody who cannot buy into an insurance plan that is red-lined by the insurance industry, and they can do that legally under this bill, they say, oh, we are not selling you a premium; you have got too many drug claims; we are not going to take you. But they can go to Medicare as a default provider, and guess what? Medicare is the only entity in the world, other than uninsured individuals, who will have to pay list price for drugs. Nobody can afford list price for drugs except the super wealthy and, according to Republicans, Medicare. This will bankrupt the program, but that is where the highest risk seniors, the ones that are not desirable to the industry, will get pushed after maybe 1 year of enrollment, if they are lucky enough to get enrolled in the first year.

   So huge costs to taxpayers, confusion and risks for seniors, the end of Medicare in the not-too-distant future by bankruptcy, by design, by the Republicans, all to profit the private insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry.

   You should be really, really ashamed of this horrible product.

NEW MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT -- (House of Representatives - November 15, 2005 )

   (Mr. PRICE of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

   Mr. PRICE of Georgia . Mr. Speaker, can you imagine an insurance policy that paid thousands of dollars for the most expensive treatment for a disease but not a few hundred dollars for medicine to prevent that disease from occurring? Well, that is what Medicare has been, until now. Today is the first day that seniors all across our country can join Medicare part D.

   As a physician, I am keenly aware that medications are a mainstay of the treatment and prevention of disease and, with this new prescription drug benefit, Medicare will now assist seniors in obtaining medicines that can prevent serious illness. Seniors should get more choices and better treatment, and America will get a Medicare system that moves into the 21st century.

   In my district, I have held senior education seminars, trying to give seniors helpful information about this new and exciting program. This is not about politics; this is about helping those eligible for Medicare to select the plan that is best for them.

   I encourage all of my colleagues in medicine and in Congress to help seniors as they have the opportunity to participate in a new health program, one that should result in a more rewarding and healthier life.