Medicare By the Numbers

MEDICARE BY THE NUMBERS -- (House of Representatives - September 21, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McCotter). Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, the Medicare Modernization Act: good for the HMOs, great for the pharmaceutical companies, bad for seniors and bad for persons with disabilities.

Let us consider the numbers.

$54 million: That is the amount drug companies spent lobbying Congress and the administration between 1997 and 2002.
675: That is the number of paid drug company lobbyists, more than 1 for each of the 535 Members of the U.S. House and Senate.

$67.7 million: That is the amount of drug company political contributions since 1999, and Republicans received 71 percent of those.

$891,208: That is the amount of drug company campaign contributions President Bush has received since 1999.
Zero: That is the number of Democrats who were allowed into the conference committee when this bill was finally crafted, the bill that was supposed to provide relief to seniors but really has provided great relief to the drug companies. That means that the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), veterans of the House and experts on Medicare, were locked out of the committee.

Twenty-three percent: the percent of average Americans' out-of-pocket medical expenses spent on prescription drugs.

Seventy percent: the amount of discounts the Veterans' Administration obtains on cholesterol medications by using its bargaining clout with the pharmaceutical companies, something not allowed for Medicare beneficiaries.

Sixty-six cents: the amount the Veterans' Administration paid for a 30-day supply of Zocor, that is high cholesterol medicine, in 2002, compared to $3.77 at the retail pharmacy.

Thirty-six percent: the amount of U.S. medical research funded, by who? By you, the taxpayers, by the Federal Government, not by the pharmaceutical companies.

$139 billion: the amount of additional drug company profits to be reaped from the new Medicare law.

$46 billion: the amount of additional payments to Medicare HMOs expected from the new Medicare law.

$400 billion: That is how much the Republicans swore the Medicare bill would cost.

$540 billion: That is the amount the Medicare actuary, the numbers cruncher, knew it was really going to cost, but he was threatened with his job if he told the truth to Congress.

$576 billion: That is the recent estimate by the Office of Management and Budget of the cost of the Republican expensive and worthless Medicare plan.

$4,000: what a senior citizen with $5,000 in yearly drug costs would have to pay under the new Medicare benefit.

2.7 million: the number of seniors expected to lose existing retiree drug benefits under the new Medicare law.
Six million: the number of low-income seniors and persons with disabilities are expected to pay more for prescription drugs under the new Medicare law.

Seventeen percent: the average profit margin of the top-ten drug companies in 2002.

3.1 percent: the average profit margin of the rest of the Fortune 500 companies in 2002.
Seventeen percent: next year's increase in Medicare Part B premiums.

2.5 percent: That is the expected Social Security cost of living adjustment increase next year.

53.6 percent: That is the percent of the average 65-year-old's Social Security recipients benefits that would go to out-of-pocket Medicare expenses in 2026. In other words, more than half of their Social Security check would end up going to pay for Medicare expenses.

Now, at the time that this bill passed, I warned my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who thought it was so great and that the senior citizens would love it. I have to tell my colleagues, another zero in my district. That is the number of senior citizens who think that the Medicare Modernization Act is a good deal for them.