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| Paying for Medicine |
July 11, 2001 |
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Dear Friends,
The room was full at Palo Duro senior Center on Friday afternoon. The AARP asked me to come talk to their seniors about adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. But it’s not just the AARP that’s concerned. I go to senior centers and hold town hall meetings a lot. We had five last week alone. The cost of medicine often comes up. Sometimes it’s seniors who raise the issue. At other times, it’s baby boomers worried about their angry parents.
Nobody should have to choose between buying groceries and buying medicine. We’ve set aside $300 billion over the next 10 years in the budget to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. Now we have to write the legislation to get it done.
In addition to the formal committee hearings we’ve had this spring, we’ve started informal meetings of members to start to craft the bill. I’m not a sponsor of any of the specific plans, but I have some principles I believe in.
That’s the first step. The plan must be affordable and give the most help to those with low incomes on high drug costs. It must be available to all over age 65 and voluntary so that people who have already earned a drug benefit in another way—like through their employer or the military—don’t have to pay twice. And it should give people choices.
The bill we came up with may have some other elements of Medicare reform, although probably not the top-to-bottom strengthening that the system needs.
And, whether it’s in the prescription drug bill or allocated to other pieces of legislation, I hope we ease the restrictions on importing medicine from FDA approved factories abroad. The fact is, pharmaceutical companies sell medicine below cost in other countries and make it up in the U.S. But the disparity is too large and Americans need some relief from high prices for medicine.
I can understand lowering prices or even giving away medicines needed in third world countries. But I don’t see why Americans should subsidize the starving Swiss, if you know what I mean…The folks at Palo Duro Senior Center last week did.
Wish You Were Here,
Heather |
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