Angie Craig: “the Medicare conference report now before the Senate, brings to fruition President Bush's early and strong commitment to…”

“the Medicare conference report now before the Senate, brings to fruition President Bush's early and strong commitment to prescription drug relief, and it reflects nearly 6 years of difficult congressional debate. This historic legislation, like the 38-year-old program it seeks to reform, is indeed expensive, complex, and unweildy but it is a compromise I can and will support, although not without some very strong reservations. This bill is a solid step toward accomplishing two core goals: Providing prescription drug relief to seniors in need, and strengthening Medicare's future through greater market competition. This legislation also includes dramatic improvements in consumer choice through health savings accounts, and perhaps the best package of rural health care improvements Congress has ever considered. Despite its deep and undeniable faults, this bill offers a rare opportunity unlikely to return for several more years, if ever--years in which millions of seniors will continue to suffer for lack of needed drugs and years in which the retirement of America's baby boomers will draw ever closer, and the modernization of Medicare will become ever more urgent.”