Remarks by U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd
Medicare Bill
November 22, 2003
A Pill Too Bitter to Swallow
Senator Byrd delivered the following remarks in the Senate during the debate on the Medicare overhaul legislation. The legislation would jeopardize the traditional health care system for thousands of West Virginians.
I had hoped to be out here on the floor talking about a plan to give senior citizens a prescription drug benefit for Medicare. I had hoped to be extolling the virtues of a bill that would give needed relief to our nation's elderly. Instead, the Congress is voting on a measure that could undermine Medicare -- the most successful program the country has ever had. One that today's seniors know and trust.
The Congress should be fashioning a real prescription drug benefit. That is what the American people have been told we are doing. Instead, the Congress debates a major restructuring and a step toward the privatization of Medicare. It is a debate that has largely been hidden from the public. A debate that our nation's seniors did not ask for.
The conference report before us today was hatched behind closed doors. Most members of Congress have been largely excluded from the backroom deals that produced this conference report. Some have asserted this legislation is merely a Trojan horse designed to get rid of Medicare. I hope that that is not true. But there is something awfully suspicious about this particular horse that is galloping through the Congress.
We need to slow down and consider the unintended consequences of this massive bill. We may be signing off on the assisted suicide of Medicare as we know it. This legislation takes the first step to undermine a health care system that has benefitted generations of retirees. And it is all happening within legislation designed to enhance Medicare to provide a drug benefit. Proponents are selling it one way, but may be doing something quite different. A classic bait and switch.
But seniors aren't falling for the bait. Many letters to me clearly reveal a genuine fear that this Medicare bill will leave seniors worse off. West Virginians have not been clamoring for enrollment in HMOs. They don't want restrictions on their choice of doctors. They have not been pushing for a new Medicare system that could leave them bouncing in and out of private health plans. My constituents are rightly fearful at the thought of having to pay significantly higher premiums just to stay in their current Medicare plan.
Some analysts of this bill estimate that as many 29,000 Medicare beneficiaries in West Virginia will lose their retiree health benefits as a direct result of this bill. And that as many as 45,000 Medicaid beneficiaries in my State will pay more for the prescription drugs they need. I thought our goal was help seniors, not hurt them as this bill may do.
Senior citizens across America are fed up with fast-rising drug costs that they cannot afford. They are traveling by the bus load to Canada and Mexico just to obtain the medications their doctors prescribe. And this bill does nothing – zilch – to help reduce the price of prescription drugs. In fact, this legislation explicitly prohibits the federal government from directly negotiating with pharmaceutical companies -- to use the bargaining power of 40 million senior citizens to lower the cost of prescription medicines. This is something the Veterans' Administration, the Department of Defense, and the Medicaid program do every day to save money on drugs. Why in the world are we prohibiting Medicare from saving money?
Unfortunately, this bill offers more of a fig leaf than sufficient prescription drug coverage. Rather than building on the traditional and successful Medicare program, the measure in front of us would force Medicare beneficiaries to rely on a private, untried, untested, drug-only insurance market for their prescription drug coverage. It would cover less than a quarter of Medicare beneficiaries' estimated drug costs over the next ten years, and the complicated coverage formula has a large, gaping hole, smack in the middle, providing zero coverage just when seniors might need that coverage the most.
This legislation includes copayments, premiums, and deductibles that may be unaffordable for many low- and middle-income seniors. A closer look at the fine print of this legislation reveals that private insurers could choose to charge seniors double or even triple these amounts. Seniors may find that their premiums could fluctuate dramatically based upon where they live and how healthy they are. At the same time, the federal government will be handing over billions of taxpayer dollars to for-profit private insurance companies just to get them to participate in Medicare.
Let's face it, the kind of prescription drug benefit that we have repeatedly promised our nation's seniors, and that they now rightly expect, would cost at least $800 billion during the next decade. Drug costs for senior citizens alone are expected to total almost $2 trillion during this same period. Yet, the Bush Administration and Congressional leadership have only set aside $400 billion for a Medicare prescription drug benefit. Though isn't it remarkable how we can afford to spend $1 billion a week in Iraq? Missiles, yes! Medicines, no! Where are the priorities of this Congress?
It seems that this Congress is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of our nation's seniors -- hoping to claim victory and keep seniors in the dark until they become painfully aware of the fine print of this legislation upon a visit to their local pharmacist in 2006.
As lobbyists for the pharmaceutical and health insurance industry swarm all corners of the Capitol, the Congress is on a mad dash to pass this bill before Thanksgiving, regardless of its contents, or its flaws -- so long as it can be called prescription drug coverage. Unfortunately, when it comes to their health care security, it appears our nation's senior citizens will find they have little for which to be thankful.
I have heard some Senators argue that something is better than nothing. They try to rationalize a bad bill by claiming that this may be our last chance. They argue that we should vote for this now and fix the bill's problems down the road. This conference report is a pill too bitter to swallow.
I am one of only a handful of Senators in this body who voted to create Medicare. I can tell you that it wasn't created overnight or in the hidden dungeons of the Capitol. It was created in response to a private sector that would not offer affordable and reliable health insurance to the elderly and the disabled. Few can argue that seniors are not better off today as a result of Medicare. We should not turn our backs on one of the most successful government initiatives ever created. We should seek ways to strengthen Medicare, not dismantle it.
Senior citizens who need life-sustaining medicines want us to get this right. They trust us to get it right. We should reject this bill and work to pass one that does get it right. Thanksgiving is an arbitrary deadline. It means nothing when measured against the potential damage that could be done from haste -- haste that could jeopardize the health care security of generations to come.
We should do better for our senior citizens. We owe them that much.
http://www.senate.gov/~byrd/byrd_speeches/byrd_speeches_2003november/byrd_speeches_2003november_lis/byrd_speeches_2003november_lis_4.html
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