Bill Clinton: “Well, the answer to that is, I certainly hope so, and I have proposed it. As a part of our reform of the Medicare…”

“Well, the answer to that is, I certainly hope so, and I have proposed it. As a part of our reform of the Medicare system, to deal with the fact that we're going to double the number of people over 65 within 30 years and increasing numbers of people with disabilities will have access to Medicare, I recommended a lot of changes that will actually save some money in the system but also providing a prescription drug option which would be completely voluntary. Three-quarters of the disabled and seniors on Medicare don't have access to an affordable, adequate prescription drug program. If we were designing the program again today, given the role that prescription medication has in our lives now, as compared with 34 years ago when Medicare was established, we would certainly not even set it up without prescription medication. We should do it. We should do it as quickly as possible. And we can afford to do it in the budget that I presented and still get the country out of debt in 15 years. So I hope that next year--Congress is--the Republican majority has refused to deal with it this year. I certainly hope they'll deal with it next year. And maybe the fact it's an election year will make them more interested in doing so. Health Care Reform”