One-third of Medicare beneficiaries currently lack prescription drug coverage. Those beneficiaries who have coverage obtain it though a variety of sources, often at considerable expense. The issue of prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries has taken center stage in Congress and in the presidential elections - for good reason. Today, too many people are forced to choose between buying groceries and filling a prescription. No senior citizen should ever be forced to make this decision.
Prescription drugs play a vital role in modern medicine.
Ideally, prescription drug coverage should be a component of larger Medicare reform. But we should not make the most vulnerable beneficiaries wait until we achieve that goal. While we work to find the best ways to strengthen and modernize Medicare for the future, Congress should act now to help beneficiaries in greatest need obtain prescription drugs. To that end, we introduced H.R. 2925, the Medicare Beneficiary Prescription Drug Assistance and Stop-Loss Protection Act of 1999. Our bipartisan bill would provide immediate help to the poorest and sickest Medicare beneficiaries - those individuals who have low incomes or high annual drug costs.