Jack Kingston: “86 percent of our seniors take at least one prescription a year, and the average senior consumes about 18 prescriptions…”

“86 percent of our seniors take at least one prescription a year, and the average senior consumes about 18 prescriptions each year. The average cost for the drugs is around $1,000 annually, or about $80 a month. Mr. Speaker, 44 percent of those seniors that are having to take or buy their own drugs have an income of less than $10,000 a year. So one of the things that we have done, not just pass the ``Gutknecht Law'' in terms of allowing free commerce between two nations who do have free commerce and are trading back and forth, but we have also passed a prescription drug benefit for Medicare. The important thing is that it reduces the average cost of prescription drugs by about 39 percent, it gives seniors still the option to buy it where they want, it does not endanger Medicare, and it does not come between the doctor-patient relationship, and that is something very important.”