Hilda L. Solis: “last week I met with the Esperanza Senior Citizen Club in City Terrace in East Los Angeles to discuss the new Medicare…”

“last week I met with the Esperanza Senior Citizen Club in City Terrace in East Los Angeles to discuss the new Medicare prescription drug law enacted last year. The seniors there had many, many questions. They asked me how the law will affect them and will it provide affordable drugs. Unfortunately, I had to tell them that the law does nothing to lower the cost of prescription drugs. In fact, I told them that it prohibits the Secretary of Health and Human Services from negotiating lower prices. They were star struck. They could not believe that that is what we had passed here in the Congress. In short, the law increases profits for big pharmaceutical companies and fails to protect seniors. The Esperanza Senior Club was shocked when they learned the truth about the new law because they felt that Congress had abandoned them. They told me to go back to Washington and they told me to renegotiate, to open up a discussion on that piece of legislation, because for them and the district that I represent, still they are not able to afford their drugs, their medications; and they want choices.”