Prescription Drug Benefit

PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT

    Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, there are many issues that will be before us this morning and during the course of this week, such as the Energy bill, which, of course, is of great importance to the security of the United States of America. We have had amendments on that bill over the last several days. But we will also be considering an important issue for millions of Americans, and that is the cost of prescription drugs. It is an issue which families face all the time, particularly if they have someone in the family with a serious illness. It is particularly difficult as well for senior citizens on a fixed income.

    There are two different issues that are going to be tested in this Chamber. There is a Republican approach which suggests we need to basically privatize Medicare, that we need to basically abandon the system of health insurance protection for seniors which has been effective for over 40 years.

    There are many on the Republican side of the aisle from a conservative political viewpoint who really do not care much for our Medicare system. They have been fairly outspoken about it. One of them is Senator Santorum of Pennsylvania, one of the leaders on the Republican side. This is what he said recently about Medicare:

    The standard benefit, the traditional Medicare program, has to be phased out.

    "Has to be phased out," he said. That was a statement by Senator Santorum, a Republican leader, in the New York Times on May 21.

    What the Republicans will bring us in terms of prescription drugs is really the first and critical step toward phasing out Medicare. It is their belief that Medicare should be eliminated and replaced with private insurance coverage, but most American families know, if they have been at the mercy of a health insurance company, that, frankly, that is not a very wise tradeoff, nor a very fair one. That is why we come down to some fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to prescription drugs.

    We on the Democratic side believe that a prescription drug benefit should be part of Medicare; that it should be a voluntary program; that there should not be any coverage gaps; that there should be reliable coverage all across America; and that we ought to lower the cost of medicine for everyone by ensuring access to generic drugs.

    On the Republican side, they have serious gaps in coverage in prescription drugs. If you are paying for prescription drugs on a monthly basis for a serious illness and expect to pay for it throughout the course of the calendar year, there are periods in the beginning when Republicans would protect you for a short period of time and then long periods of months when there is no protection whatsoever before your bills get so huge you qualify for catastrophic coverage. That is not very much protection for a family or a sick person.

    They also, on the Republican side, will force seniors out of Medicare and into unreliable HMOs where seniors will not be able to choose their own doctors. Do you remember the debate we had over 10 years ago about the future of health care in America? Wasn't one of the serious issues we talked about one's ability to choose one's own doctor? The Republican approach on prescription drugs, the suggestion we privatize Medicare, that we move people into HMOs, will take away the ability of seniors to choose their own doctors, their ability to choose the doctors they trust. That is pretty fundamental.

    Also, the Republicans suggest spending billions to privatize Medicare and turning this over to big insurance companies. Have you spoken recently to someone who has had to deal with health insurance companies, the rates they charge, and the conditions on coverage? I have; I sat down with small business people in Illinois. I find it absolutely scandalous what is going on. These insurance companies are cherry-picking. They are deciding who they will insure and who they will not insure. They are deciding the length and duration of coverage and the type of coverage.

    If you, during the course of the calendar year when you are covered, turn in any claim relative to any part of your body or any illness, you can virtually bet that next year, when you go to sign up for health insurance, it will be excluded; you are on your own. Is that the kind of coverage which we want to see in America?

    The Republicans say that is a choice; we are giving people a choice. Let me tell you, Mr. President, the seniors of America have chosen for over 40 years the right choice, and that choice is Medicare. Medicare is a system which protects all Americans. It is a system with low administrative costs. It is a system which has worked. It has worked because the life expectancy of seniors has increased. It has worked because hospitals across America provide benefits to seniors. That is what is at stake in this debate.

    I say to my colleagues who argue this is just a question of choice, it is the wrong choice. The best choice is to stick with Medicare, to stick with protection.

    In closing, I wish to speak about cost. There will be those who come to this Chamber and say: You Democrats and those who support a plan under Medicare have to understand how expensive it is.

    They will say, you do not understand the expense of your proposal. I wish those same critics could remember the debate just 2 weeks ago on the Senate floor when the Bush administration came in and asked for us to provide over $350 billion in tax breaks for some of the wealthiest people in America. Two years ago, that same administration asked for over $1 trillion worth of tax breaks for the elite investors in America. The money was there for tax breaks for the wealthiest people in America but, sadly, when it comes to providing health insurance coverage, when it comes to prescription drug coverage, time and again the same people who voted so willingly for tax breaks for the wealthy will not come up with the dollars necessary for real prescription drug coverage that will cover our seniors across America.

    That is what this debate is about, the future of Medicare, a fair program to protect all senior citizens and to provide for cost of prescription drugs.

    I yield the floor.