Calvin Dooley: “I rise to ask that the previous question be defeated so we can offer a real prescription drug benefit to seniors. It is…”

“I rise to ask that the previous question be defeated so we can offer a real prescription drug benefit to seniors. It is unfortunate that the bill being offered by our Republican colleagues is one that seniors are going to find is so complex that it is going to result in taxpayers displacing a lot of private sector contributions which are already providing prescription drug benefits. Why in the world would we design a drug benefit program where we are actually going to be trading taxpayer dollars for dollars that are already being spent by corporations for their retirees? There is a better alternative, and that is the bill we would like to offer, that is, we take the $400 billion that President Bush has talked about, roll it into Medicare part B, and use a drug card much like President Bush has talked about which ensures that every senior will have access to negotiated prices which ensures that they have 10 to 20 percent savings. We do this without an increase in premiums. We also target seniors facing catastrophic health care costs by ensuring that after they have purchased drugs that cost $4,000, that the Federal Government will be there to pick up the vast majority of their drug costs from that point on. We also recognize that there are a lot of seniors in this country that cannot afford the $4,000, so we provide a low-income benefit that provides significant assistance to all those seniors who have incomes less than 200 percent of poverty.”