Nancy L. Johnson: “I have served in Congress a long time; and when there is a real problem in the lives of the people you represent, I…”

“I have served in Congress a long time; and when there is a real problem in the lives of the people you represent, I believe your job is to solve it. I believe your job is to take action, to do something; and I know that this is the most important health care bill we have passed for seniors since Medicare was founded. It not only offers them prescription drugs. As I showed you earlier, it is absolutely voluntary. It is simple. You just use your ZIP code. You give us the pharmacist you like the best. You give us the names of your drugs, and we will tell you how much money you can save. It is not for everyone, if people already have very good coverage through their employers, but particularly important to those seniors who have no prescription drug coverage. It is real savings in their lives, and that is important to me. When the whole bill goes into effect, we will pay 75 percent of the costs of their drugs, a gigantic step forward. Just as we pay 80 percent of the cost of their visits to the doctor, we will pay 75 percent of the cost of their drugs. In the bill I wrote, it was 80 percent. We will get it up to 80 percent, but you have to act. You have to do something, and all these nay-sayers who voted against doing anything one more year, this would have been the fourth year we would have done nothing. What a record. All those nay-sayers are now telling you do not bother, do not bother. Listen, take a minute, bother, call 1-800-MEDICARE.…”