Until we provide affordable prescription drug coverage under Medicare, older Americans will not get the quality of health care they deserve. When Medicare was established in 1965, prescription drugs did not play a significant role in our nation's health care. Due to important advances in pharmaceuticals in the past third of a century, prescription drugs now play a key role in the health care of America's seniors. Today the typical senior over age 65 uses 18 prescription drugs a year. Some 85 percent of Medicare beneficiaries fill at least one prescription per year for conditions such as osteoporosis, hypertension, heart attacks, diabetes or depression.
Seniors are the most dependent on prescription drugs of our nation's age groups.
While seniors represent 12 percent of our population, they use more than one-third of the prescription drugs consumed in the United States each year. Tom Lantos strongly supports a plan backed by President Clinton which would help deal with the high cost of medicines for seniors. The program would pay at least one half of the negotiated price of the drug up to a maximum limit that will increase over time. Program savings will be used to further reduce the amount seniors will pay. In order to make drug prices more affordable for seniors, the program will negotiate volume purchase discounts that now are given to large purchasers.