Date: 2000-09-21
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. I rise today to call my colleagues attention to passing a real prescription drug plan before Congress adjourns. It is ironic that the Presidential candidate for the Republican Party has a new slogan about real plans for real people. I think we can all agree that senior citizens are real people and they need some real help. As a registered nurse who has spent countless hours helping senior citizens with their medical needs. I can say what these real people need. They desperately need Medicare to cover the cost of buying lifesaving drugs. As a registered nurse. I had the pleasure of working with seniors before coming to Congress. I know firsthand that many of them are on fixed incomes and already struggling to buy food and pay their rent. I have paid close attention as to what we need to do as a nation to help senior citizens. I can say that our seniors simply need assistance with purchasing lifesustaining drugs. They simply cannot afford the high cost of the drugs now. When the big pharmaceutical companies escalate the prices of prescription drugs every year at a pace that exceeds the annual level of inflation. between 1993 and 1998. spending nationwide for prescription drugs increased at an annual rate of 12 percent. This past April. I hosted a town hall meeting back in Dallas where I talked with constituents. the real people. about the exorbitant cost of prescription drugs. And here are some of the other startling statistics that were revealed: 85 percent of the seniors fill at least one prescription per year for common conditions because for their age such as osteoporosis. hypertension. heart attacks. diabetes. or depression. seniors nationwide are paying over 130 percent more for essential prescriptions than the drug companies" most favorite customers. the HMOs. nearly twothirds of Medicare beneficiaries have no drug coverage or unreliable. costly. and limited coverage and must pay these costs outofpocket. onethird of the Medicare beneficiaries have absolutely no coverage for prescription drugs at all. What disturbs me even more are the statistics relating to the fat cat insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry. Premiums and copays are rising. caps of $500 to $1.000 a year are being imposed frequently. drug companies profits were actually three times more than the average profits of all other pharmaceutical companies. I understand that we have passed one bill that favors the pharmaceutical industry. That is not what the people need. The people really need. the real people. need a plan that is covered by Medicare because the profits. they talk about research. the profits outstrip their research budgets. That is not true. The average compensation for a drug companys CEO was $22 million a year in 1998. So if we look at all of these facts. we have to wonder how the other side could put together the plan that they have devised. It gives subsidies to the big insurance companies. It seems that pennypinching actuaries are the other sides idea of real people. not to mention the big pharmaceutical companies. It is ironic that we have allowed all of this time to lapse and are about to leave to go home. and we have forgotten about the real people. The American people. including the residents of Dallas. have had enough of the other sides stonewalling. The American people do not really need smoke and mirrors. They need a real prescription drug benefit for seniors. not a phony plan that relies on drug companies and insurance profiteers. As we head toward the final stretch here. I hope that we can put the playing aside. consider that these are really people and consider that they really need real relief and pass a Medicare prescription drug benefit and bring competition to the drug industry so that drug prices can be reduced for the seniors. This is really unconscionable. We are talking about people who have retired and who are on fixed incomes. We must give them relief. We cannot continue to just play.