Barbara Boxer: “I want to speak to the hearts and the minds of each and every one of my colleagues and friends, so I will speak straight…”

“I want to speak to the hearts and the minds of each and every one of my colleagues and friends, so I will speak straight from the shoulder. The amendment we just voted for did nothing, not one thing, for cancer patients, except reiterate what is already in the underlying bill. What my amendment does, and why I hope we will rise to the occasion and support it, is to send a strong message to anyone diagnosed with cancer, and to their families, friends, and loved ones, that if and when they are diagnosed with cancer, they will not face the benefit shutdown that is now in this bill. I will show my colleagues on this chart that at $4,500 of drug costs, the benefit shuts down. I want my colleagues to think about someone they know with cancer, someone who is battling cancer. Do we want to put this burden on them? They must take their drugs. They cannot cut their pills in half in order to survive. The Cancer Society tells us that 6 million to 7 million Medicare beneficiaries are battling some form of cancer, and 380,000 of them will die of cancer. Please, let us relieve this burden of them having to pay 100 percent of their drug costs during this benefit shutdown. I beg my colleagues to take a stand. I beg my colleagues to be compassionate.”