Lynn C. Woolsey: “many, many of our seniors must choose between buying food and buying medicine every day and every week of their lives…”

“many, many of our seniors must choose between buying food and buying medicine every day and every week of their lives, and we know that that is not right. But what are we doing about it? What are we doing in this Congress as we come to the end of the 106th Congress? My Republican colleagues would suggest that private insurance companies take over this issue, but from 1995 to 1999 this country has doubled what is spent on prescription drugs, from $65 billion a year to $125 billion a year. Prescriptions are a fact of life. Do we really believe that private insurers are willing to take on the burden of 18 prescription drugs on average per year for a senior citizen? Of course not. If it were at all profitable, private insurers would already be all over this market. Instead, we need to expand Medicare. We need to include the guaranteed prescription drug benefits through a good program that has been working for us for 30 years.”